LTBRAEY 

PRINCETON.    N.  J 

No.  Case, 

No.  Shelf,  -s^^S 
-M^  Konk .  __. 
BV    603     .M31 
Mcllvaine,    Charles    Pettif 

1799-1873.  ettlt' 

The   holy   catholic    church 


<L«pv    I 


THE 

HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH; 

OR   THE 

COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS, 

IN   THE 

MYSTICAL   BODY   OF   CHRIST: 

A  SEEMON, 


PREACHED  IN  THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  EPIPHANY,  IN   THE   CITY  OF 
PHILADELPHIA,  ON  SUNDAY,  SEPTEMBER  6TH,  1844, 


BY  CHARLES  PETTIT  M'lLVAINE,  D.  D, 


BISHOP   OF   THE    PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH, 
IN  THE   DIOCESE   OF   OHIO. 


WITH    AN    APPENDIX. 

PUBLISHED   BY   REQUEST. 

PHILADELPHIA : 
H.  HOOKER,  CHESNUT  STREET. 

1844. 


Enlered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1844,  by 
CHARLES  PETTIT  M'lLVAINE, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District 
of  Pennsylvania. 


KING  AND  BAIRD,  PRINTERS,  9  GEORGE  STREET. 


To  Peter  G.  Stuyvesant,  Esq., 

This  discourse  is  affectionately  inscribed, 
as  an  humble  expression  of  regard  for  one,  who 
in  his  efforts  to  promote  the  best  interests  of 
sacred  learning,  and  gospel  truth,  in  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church,  has  merited  the  warmest 
gratitude  of  her  members,  and  has  laid  under 
special  obligation, 

His  humble  servant, 

And  brother,  in  Christ, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


Philadelphia,  October  8th,  1844. 

Rt.  Rev.  Charles  P.  M'Ilvaine, 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Ohio. 

Rt.  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir— 

The  undersigned  heard  with  profound  attention  and  respect, 
the  Sermon  which  you  delivered  last  evening  at  the  Church 
of  the  Epiphany,  and  they  take  this  opportunity  to  express  to 
you  the  sense  of  their  obligation  for  this  addition  to  the  treasures 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  and  to  ask  that  you  will  have  the 
goodness  to  furnish  them  with  a  copy  for  publication,  that  they 
may  be  enabled  to  impart  to  their  Brethren  in  the  Lord,  a  portion 
of  the  satisfaction  and  pleasure  which  they  have  themselves 
received. 

With  great  Respect  and  Esteem, 

We  remain  yours,  &c. 

C.  G.  Memmingek,  J.  B.  Gallagher, 

Wm.  H.  Macfarland,  Wm.  H.  Barnwell, 

A.  Williams,  Jr.  H.  Anthon, 

John  P.  Convngham,  H.  Hooker, 

J.  W.  Macph.  Berrien,  Edward  A.  Newton, 

Lewis  Morris,  Edward  S.  Rand, 

Alexander  Hamilton,  F.  S.  Winston, 

Wm.  Appleton,  J.  Smyth  Rogers, 

James  Potter,  P.  G.  Stuyvesant, 

Stephen  H.  Tyng,  Stewart  Brown. 

1* 


Philadelphia,  October  9th,  1844. 

Messrs.  C.  G.  Memminger, 

Wm.  H.  Macfarland,  and  others. 

Gentlemen— 

I  have  just  received  your  kind  request  that  I  would  furnish 
a  copy  of  the  discourse  which  I  preached  last  Sunday  night,  for 
publication.  In  reliance  upon  your  opinion,  as  well  as  that  of 
many  others  of  my  friends  and  brethren,  clergymen  and  laymen, 
(who  have  severally  expressed  the  same  desire,)  that  the  publi- 
cation of  the  discourse  may  be  of  use  to  the  great  cause  which 
we  love,  and  seeking  the  blessing  of  our  Lord  thereon,  I  cheer- 
fully accede  to  your  request. 

Very  truly  and  respectfully, 

Your  friend  and  brother, 

CHARLES  P.  M'lLVAINE. 


THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

II   CORINTHIANS,  vi.  16. 

Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living  God  ;  as  God  hath  said,  I  will 

dwell  in  them  and  walk  in  them  ;  and  I  will  be  their 

God  and  they  shall  be  my  people. 

These  words  were  addressed,  by  St.  Paul,  to 
the  collective  body  of  the  Christians  at  Corinth. 
The  same,  he  said,  to  the  whole  body  of  christian 
Jews  and  Gentiles;  addressing  them  as  "the 
household  of  God" — " builded  together  in 
Christ,"  "a  habitation  of  God,"  and  "  growing 
unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord."*  Hence  we 
understand  in  what  sense  the  christians  in  Co- 
rinth were  called  the  temple  of  God ;  not  as  if 
God  had  as  many  temples  as  there  were  sepa- 
rate communities  of  christians ;  but  that  all 
christians,  Jews  and  Gentiles,  wherever  found, 
composed  one  holy  temple,  "built  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone." 

*  Eph.  ii.  19-22. 


8  THE    HOLY 

We  shall  consider  the  text  therefore  as  ad- 
dressed to  all  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
All  are  "  the  temple  of  the  living  God" 

The  Church  of  God,  in  all  the  world,  is  the 
Temple  of  God. 

That  we  may  the  better  realize  the  propriety 
with  which  the  Church  of  God,  composed,  not 
of  visible  walls,  but  of  invisible  minds,  is  called 
His  Temple,  we  must  divest  ourselves  of  the 
habit  of  thought  arising  out  of  the  almost  exclu- 
sive application  of  that  name  to  visible  struc- 
tures of  man's  workmanship,  for  the  worship  of 
God.  The  temple  of  Solomon,  built  under  di- 
vine direction, — a  wonder  of  the  world  for  gran- 
deur and  magnificence, — and  inhabited  by  that 
visible  and  miraculous  glory,  which  was  the 
supreme  expression  of  the  divine  presence,  is 
supposed,  very  generally,  to  have  been  the  high- 
est, as  well  as  the  most  literal,  idea  of  a  temple 
of  the  living  God.  Any  departure  from  the  ma- 
terial and  visible  character  of  that  structure,  under 
the  name  of  a  Temple,  is  supposed  to  be  a  de- 
parture from  the  literal  to  the  figurative ;  and 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  a  collective  body  of 
the  people  of  God,  as  His  Temple,  and  especially 
when  the  scriptures  speak  of  every  true  child  of 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  9 

God,  as  His  Temple,  the  supposition  is  that  the 
expression  has  departed  very  far  from  a  literal, 
and  has  taken  on  a  very  figurative  or  accommo- 
dated sense. 

Now  this,  we  apprehend,  is  an  entire  misap- 
prehension. The  house  erected  by  Solomon  was 
the  Temple  of  God,  not  because  of  its  walls,  and 
courts,  and  apartments,  and  altars,  but  because  the 
Schechinah  of  God's  presence,  appeared  therein, 
indicating  that  God  dwelt  among  his  people 
Israel.  Suppose  those  walls  and  altars  all  cast 
down,  and  every  stone  removed,  but  that  glory 
still  there,  and  there  would  still  have  been,  as 
much  as  ever,  the  Temple,  the  habitation  of  the 
mighty  God  of  Jacob.  It  was  simply  that  glo- 
rious appearing  of  His  presence  which  made  the 
tabernacle  in  the  wilderness  as  much  the  tem- 
ple of  God,  as  the  statelier  and  more  permanent 
habitation  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  the  same  pre- 
sence that  made  the  place  where  Moses  stood  on 
Mount  Horeb,  when  God  appeared  to  him  in  a 
name  of  fire,  out  of  the  midst  of  the  bush,  the 
temple,  for  a  time,  of  the  living  God.*  God  was 
there.     Jacob  found  the  temple  of  God  in  the 

*  Exod.  iii. 


10  THE    HOLY 

way  from  Beersheba  to  Haran,  where  no  house 
was,  nor  altar ;  nothing  but  the  ground  he  lay  on 
to  sleep,  and  the  stones  he  placed  for  his  pillow. 
But  God  appeared  to  him  there.  And  Jacob 
awakejd  and  said :  "  Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this 
place."  And,  because  the  Lord  was  there,  he 
said  :  "  How  dreadful  is  this  place  ;  this  is  none 
other  but  the  house  of  God."  "  And  he  called 
the  name  of  the  place  Bethel"*  And  had  he 
surrounded  that  place  with  courts  and  buildings 
as  noble  as  those  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  it 
could  not  have  been  more  really,  however  it 
would  have  been  more  visibly,  "the  temple  of 
the  living  God." 

Let  us  keep  it  distinctly  in  our  mind,  that  it  is 
not  a  visible  building,  but  the  special  presence  of 
God,  that  makes  any  place  the  temple  of  God  ; 
and  then  we  shall  see  the  strictly  literal  propriety 
with  which  every  true  servant  of  God  is  called 
His  Temple.  God  dwelleth  in  Mm  by  His 
Spirit.  And  hence  the  whole  community  of 
God's  true  people  is  His  Temple,  because,  saith 
St.  Paul,  they  are  "the  habitation  of  God, 
through  the  Spirit."t     And  in  the  same  way,  St. 

*  Gen.  xxviii.  10-22.        j-  Eph.  ii.  22. 


CATHOLIC  CHURCH.  11 

Paul  says  to  the  Corinthian  christians,  in  the  text : 
"Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living  God;"  giving 
for  explanation,  the  promise,  "  I  will  dwell  in 
them  and  walk  in  them  ;"  wherein,  you  perceive, 
the  dwelling  of  God  in  His  people  is  taken  as 
equivalent  to  making  them  His  Temple.  And 
hence  the  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  his 
human  nature,  is  called  "  the  temple  of  his  body," 
because  in  that  nature,  dwelt  "  all  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  bodily."* 

And  now  we  get  the  highest  and  most  literal 
conception  of  the  temple  of  God.  In  the  hu- 
man nature  of  our  Lord,  dwells,  in  inseparable 
union  therewith,  without  distinction  of  person, 
or  confusion  of  essence,  the  whole  nature  of  the 
Godhead.  He  is  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. "t 
Nothing  was  ever  the  habitation  of  God,  as  was, 
and  is,  and  ever  shall  be,  that  once  crucified,  now 
glorified  body  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  That, 
therefore,  is  the  perfect  temple.  Hence,  St. 
John,  describing  the  New  Jerusalem,  which  he 
saw,  in  vision,  coming  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven,  said:  "  I  saw  no  temple  therein,  for  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  tem- 
ple of  it."J  The  divine  nature  of  the  Lord 
*  Col.  ii.  9.     f  1  Tim.  iii.  16.     *  Rev.  xxi.  22. 


12  THE    HOLY 

God,  dwelling  in  the  human  nature  of  the  Lamb 
that  was  slain,  makes  it  the  glorious  temple  of 
that  commonwealth  of  Israel,  in,  and  through, 
which,  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead,  and  all  the 
riches  of  grace  and  glory,  will  be  made  manifest 
to  the  saints,  forever  and  ever. 

The  nearer  we  approach,  in  likeness,  to  that 
habitation  of  God,  in  Christ;  the  nearer  we  come 
to  be  each  the  temple  of  God.  Now,  in  every 
true  christian,  there  is  the  indwelling  of  God, 
by  his  Spirit,  as  none  but  spiritual  and  immortal 
beings  can  possess  it.  God's  Spirit  is  in  him  as 
an  Inhabitant, — He  is  made  a  "  partaker  of  the 
divine  nature;"  not  indeed,  as  Christ  was,  by 
oneness  of  essence,  but  by  communication  of  per- 
sonal, indwelling,  holiness.  "  I  will  dwell  in  them 
and  walk  in  them,"  is  the  promise  of  God  to  his 
people.  Here  then,  next  to  the  human  nature  of 
our  Lord,  is  the  most  literal  and  perfect  temple 
of  the  living  God  ;  the  man  who  has,  abiding  in 
him,  God's  Holy  Spirit.*     Compare  with  this, 

*  "What  resemblance,  (asks  Bishop  Andrews,)  is 
there  between  a  bod)'- and  a  temple]  Or  how  can  a  body 
be  so  termed]  Well  enough  ;  for  I  ask  what  makes 
a  temple.    Is  it  not  a  temple  because  it  is  the  house  of 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  13 

the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  in  which  appeared 
rather  the  symbol,  than  the  power  of  His  indwell- 
ing ;  and  you  will  see  that  that  was  not  so  much 
the  true  temple,  as  its  type.  In  all  its  glory,  it 
was  not  arrayed  like  one  immortal  soul  which 
halh  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  whom  God 
manifests  the  power  of  His  presence  by  daily 
renewing  and  sustaining  him  in  His  own  image 
and  likeness.  What  is  the  noblest  edifice  of 
man's  workmanship,  for  a  habitation  of  God, 
compared  with  an  immortal  mind,  in  the  beauty 
of  holiness  ?     "God  is  a  spirit!" 

We  are  now  prepared  for  a  nearer  contempla- 

God?  because  God  dwelleth  there  1  For  as  that  where- 
in man  dwells  is  a  house ;  so  that  wherein  God  dwells 
is  a  temple  properly,  be  it  place  or  be  it  body.  «  Know 
ye  not  (saith  the  Apostle)  that  your  body  is  the  temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  A  body,  then,  may  be  a  temple, 
even  this  of  ours.  And  if  ours,  in  which  the  Spirit  of 
God  dwelleth  only  by  some  gift  or  grace,  with  how 
much  better  right  his  body,  in  whom  the  whole  Godhead  in 
all  the  fulness  thereof  dwelleth  corporally,  by  nature,  by 
personal  union,  not  (as  in  us)  by  grace,  by  participation 
of  it  only.  Alas,  ours  are  but  tabernacles  under  goat 
skins  ;  His,  the  true,  the  marble,  the  cedar  temple  in- 
deed."— Bishop  Andrew's  Sermons,  No.  10. 
2 


14  THE    HOLY 

tion  of  the  Church,  as  the  Temple  of  the  living 
God.     Let  us  begin  at  its  foundation. 

The  Church,  or  Temple,  of  God  is  built  on 
Christ  as  its  corner-stone. 

"  Behold  (saith  the  Lord)  I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief 
corner-stone,  elect,  precious,  and  he  that  believ- 
eth  on  him  shall  not  be  confounded."*  "  In 
whom  (saith  St.  Paul)  all  the  building  fitly  framed 
together,  groweth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the 
Lord."  "To  whom  coming  (saith  St.  Peter) 
as  unto  a  living  stone,  ye  also  as  lively  stones  are 
built  up  a  spiritual  house. "t  Let  us  take  care 
that  we  get  the  whole  literal  reality  of  this  doc- 
trine. There  is  a  figure  of  speech  in  calling  our 
Lord  a  stone,  a  corner-stone ;  but  there  is  no 
figure  in  making  the  whole  Church  just  as  lite- 
rally and  immediately  dependent  on  him,  person- 
ally, for  all  its  being,  as  a  house  is  dependent  on 
its  foundation.  Christ  is  the  very  being  of  the 
Church.  Not  only  did  he  found  it;  not  only 
does  he  sustain  it,  and  enlighten  it,  and  defend 
it ;  but  he  is  personally  and  directly  the  life  there- 
of. Because  he  is  such  to  each  individual  be- 
liever, therefore  is   he  the  same  to  the  whole 

*  1  Pet.  ii.  5,  6.        f  Eph.  ii.  21 :    1  Pet.  ii.  5. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  15 

fellowship  of  believers.  Does  the  single  chris- 
tian say,  "  for  me  to  live  is  Christ  ?"  The  whole 
mystical  union  of  true  christians,  composing  the 
Church  of  God,  must  say  the  same.  It  is  only 
because  all  the  building  is,  in  every  individual 
part,  "framed  together  in  him," — in  him  as  its 
righteousness,  in  him  as  its  sanctification,  in  him 
as  all  its  strength  and  life,  that  it  "  groweth  unto 
an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord."  "He  that  abideth 
in  me  and  I  in  Ann," — that  is  the  true  descrip- 
tion of  what  Christ  is,  as  the  corner-stone  of  His 
Church,  to  every  part  thereof.  All  of  it,  in  every 
least  part,  abides  in  him.  He,  by  his  sanctify- 
ing Spirit,  abides  in  every  part.  Its  oneness  is 
the  oneness  of  its  life  in  Christ.  Hence  our 
Lord  is  called  a  "living  stone;11  not  so  much 
because  he  lives — "  the  Lamb  that  was  slain, 
and  is  alive  again  for  evermore;"  as  because  he 
is  the  source,  and  centre,  and  power  of  life,  to 
give,  and  to  sustain,  it  in  his  people ;  to  make 
every  soul  that  is  built  up  in  him,  a  living  temple, 
a  spiritual  house.  When,  on  a  certain  occasion,  a 
dead  body  was  laid  in  a  prophet's  grave,  as  soon 
as  it  touched  the  bones  of  the  man  of  God,  it 
lived.  But  the  life  came  not  from  the  bones. 
Not  so  when  the  dead  carcass  of  man's  ruined 


16  THE    HOLY 

nature,  dead  in  sin,  is  brought  into  contact,  by- 
faith,  with  the  elect,  corner-stone  of  the  Church 
of  God,  and  immediately  is  alive  unto  God, — a 
new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  life  cometh 
from  that  stone.  It  is  a  living  stone,  and  has 
life  in  itself,  to  give  life  to  the  dead.  "  Our  life 
is  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  It  is  all  there,  in 
the  infinite  depths,  in  the  inexhaustible  riches, 
in  the  inviolable  security  of  that  divine  nature 
which  is  in  him.  The  gates  of  hell  cannot  pre- 
vail against  the  Church,  because  the  seat,  and 
source,  and  power  of  its  life  are  not  in  the  world, 
not  in  man,  not  in  any  community  of  men,  not 
in  the  body  of  the  Church,  not  exposed  to  any 
of  the  infirmities  of  our  nature  ;  but  in  that  living 
stone,  that  mysterious  union  of  God  and  man; 
"hid"  out  of  the  reach  of  Satan,  beyond  the 
grasp  of  the  creature's  enmity,  where  no  convul- 
sions of  this  world  can  affect  it,  in  the  deep  of 
the  wisdom,  and  power,  and  grace  of  God. 

Let  us  next  consider  the  materials  of  the 
Church  and  Temple  of  God. 

They  are  none  but  the  true  people  of  God. 
Thus  in  the  text,  "  Ye  are  the  temple  of  the  liv- 
ing God  ;  as  God  hath  said,  «  I  will  dwell  in 
them  and  walk  in  them,  and  I  will  be  their  God, 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  17 

and  they  shall  be  my  people."  Does  this  mean 
that  they  in  whom  God  will  dwell,  are  his  peo- 
ple exclusively  ;  or  that  He  dwells  also  in  those 
who  are  only  professedly  his  people?  None 
can  hesitate.  He  dwells  in  none  but  those  who 
love  Him,  and  have  received  His  Spirit.  None 
but  these,  therefore,  are  addressed  in  the  text  as 
the  temple — none  else  are  the  Church  of  God. 
True,  the  words  of  the  text  were  addressed  to 
all  the  professed  christians  of  Corinth,  among 
whom  were  the  false  as  well  as  the  true.  But 
they  were  all  addressed  as  "  sanctified  in  Christ 
Jesus"*  because  all  professed  to  be  sanctified, 
and  only  as  their  sanctification  ivas  as  professed, 
were  they  the  Temple  of  God. 

But  St.  Peter  settles  this  matter,  once  for  all. 
He  calls  the  several  parts  of  the  temple,  "  living 
stones,"  as  he  calls  the  great  Head  of  the  corner 
"a  living  stone."  "  To  whom  coming,  as 
unto  a  living  stone,  ye  also,  as  lively  stones, 
are  built  up  a  spiritual  house."^  What  is  the 
doctrine  here?  Evidently  that  none  but  living 
stones  compose  that  house — that  the  stones  of 
the  walls  must  be  conformed  to  the  stone  of  the 

*  1  Cor.  i.  2.  f  1  Pet.  ii.  5. 

2* 


18  THE    HOLY 

corner.  Because  he  lives,  they  must  live  also. 
In  other  words  a  dead  christian — a  mere  profes- 
sor of  religion,  a  mere  thing  of  ordinances,  with- 
out Christ  dwelling  in  him  by  His  Spirit, — what 
Bishop  Taylor  calls  the  mere  "outsides"  of  the 
church, — can  have  no  membership  in  Christ's 
true  Church,  can  make  no  part  in  God's  Tem- 
ple. The  mind  of  Christ  must  be  also  in  us — 
we  must  be  like  Him.  "If  any  man  have  not 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  His."  If  none 
of  his,  then  none  of  his  body,  none  of  his  Tem- 
ple. Each  of  us  must  be  himself  "the  temple 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  before  he  can  be  built  up  in 
that  spiritual  house  which  is  the  Church  of  God, 
"  the  blessed  company  (as  our  communion  office 
defines  it)  of  all  faithful  people."  "  Others, 
(says  Augustine,)  are  so  said  to  be  in  the  house 
of  God,  that  they  do  not  pertain  to  the  structure 
of  the  house,  but  are  as  chaff  in  the  wheat.  *  * 
Those  who  are  condemned  by  Christ,  for  their 
evil  consciences,  are  not  in  Christ's  body,  which 
is  the  Church,  for  Christ  hath  no  damned  mem- 
bers."*   "  If  Christ's  quickening  spirit  be  want- 

*  Quoted  by  Bishop  Taylor,  Dissuasive  from  Pope- 
ry.    P.  ii.  1.  1,  §  1. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  19 

ing  in  any,  no  external  communion  with  Christ 
can  make  him  a  true  member  of  Christ's  mysti- 
cal body,  this  being  a  most  sure  principle,  that 
he  which  hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  none 
of  His."* 

But  how  are  the  dead  stones  out  of  the  quarry 
of  our  ruined  nature  made  alive  in  Christ?  By 
what  means?  By  what  instrumentality  ?  Simply, 
answers  the  Apostle,  by  being  brought  unto 
Christ.  "To  whom  coming  as  unto  a  living 
stone,'1  &c.  "Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that 
ye  might  have  life.  These  words  of  St.  Peter 
and  of  our  Lord,  teach  the  whole  lesson  on  this 
subject.  It  is  the  coming  of  each  soul,  in  a  per- 
sonal application  directly  to  Christ,  by  which 
he  obtains  life  ;  and  in  obtaining  life  by  this  ap- 
plication, he  becomes  united  to  the  living  stone, 
Christ  Jesus,  and  by  that  union  he  is  built  up  as 
part  and  parcel  of  the  spiritual  house.  His  coming 
to  Christ  is  his  life ;  his  deriving  life  from  Christ 
is  his  union  unto  him ;  and  in  that  very  union 
unto  Christ  is  contained  and  involved  his  being, 
built  up  in  His  true  Church.  "This  union  to 
Christ  maketh  the  church  to  be  the  church ;  and 

*  Usher's  Sermon  before  the  House  of  Commons. 


20  THE    HOLY 

by  it  the  members  thereof,  whether  they  be  in 
heaven,  or  in  earth,  are  distinguished  from  all 
other  companies  whatsoever."*  What  is  meant 
by  the  communion  of  saints,  is  simply  that  com- 
mon union  with  that  common  centre  of  the  life  of 
all  and  of  each.  They  are  one  spiritual  body,  be- 
cause they  have  one  living  head,  by  which  they 
all  have  life.  That  which  makes  the  several 
parts  of  the  human  frame  one  body,  is  not  that 
they  are  joined  one  to  another  by  bones  and  liga- 
ments, and  enclosed  in  the  same  integument;  but 
that  they  have  all  vital  union  with  the  life  of  one 
head.  Communion  in  the  life  of  that  one  head, 
constitutes  them  one  body.  And  in  the  spiritual 
house  of  God,  communion  of  the  several  stones 
in  the  life  of  the  one  living  head  of  the  corner, 
constitutes  them  one  holy  temple — the  one  true 
Church  of  God.t 

Before  we  leave  this  part  of  our  subject,  it  is 
of  great  importance  to  the  whole  view  we  have 
taken,  that  we  be  very  clear  upon  one  point — I 
mean  that  act  by  which,  instrument ally ',  we  are 
built  upon  Christ.     We  have  mentioned  it  inci- 

*  Perkins'  Works,  vol.  I.  p  277. 

•}■  See  on  Immediate  Union  to  Christ,  App.  A. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  21 

dentally  before.  It  is  well  to  speak  of  it  more 
directly  now.  "To  whom  coming,  &c,  (saith 
St.  Peter,)  ye  are  built  up,"  &c.  Coming  to 
Christ  is  then  the  act  of  being  built  up  in  him. 
But  what  shall  we  understand  by  that  coming? 
The  answer  is  given  by  St.  Peter  immediately 
after:  "Wherefore  also,  (he  says,)  it  is  con- 
tained in  Scripture — 'Behold,  I  lay  in  Sion  a 
chief  corner-stone,  elect,  precious ;  and  he  that 
believeth  on  him  shall  not  be  confounded.'  " 
Hence  there  can  be  no  question  that  believing 
on  Christ  is  of  the  same  meaning  with  the  pre- 
vious expression,  coming  unto  him.  Hence  the 
apostle  proceeds  in  the  next  verse  to  say  :  "Unto 
you,  therefore,  which  believe,  he  is  precious." 
The  act  of  faith,  then,  is  that  which  puts  us  in 
possession  of  all  the  preciousness  of  Christ ; 
which  builds  us  upon  that  elect,  living  stone; 
which  makes  us  alive  in  him,  and  members  of 
his  own  living  Church.  "  Faith,  (says  our 
Hooker,)  is  the  ground  and  the  glory  of  all  the 
welfare  of  this  building."*  "That  which  link- 
eth  Christ  to  us,  is  his  mere  mercy  and  love  to- 
wards us.     That  which  tieth  us  to  him,  is  our 

*  Hooker's  2d  Sermon  on  Jude,  §  14. 


22  THE    HOLY 

faith  in  the  promised  salvation  revealed  in  his 
word  of  truth."*  "No  work  of  ours,  no  build- 
ing of  ourselves  in  any  thing,  can  be  profitable 
unto  us,  except  we  be  built  in  faith. "t  We  may- 
be brought  nigh,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  the  one 
foundation ;  ordinances  and  sacraments  may  set 
us  down,  as  it  were,  immediately  by  it,  and  may 
put  us  into  visible  connection  therewith,  as  visi- 
ble members  of  the  Church;  but  after  all  we 
shall  be  but  as  so  many  loose  stones,  without 
bond,  without  life — having  no  real  union  with 
the  church,  or  with  Christ,  until  we  begin  to  ex- 
ercise a  living  faith  in  him  as  all  our  life.  It 
is  a  good  sentence  of  holy  Leighton:  "This 
union  is  the  spring  of  all  spiritual  consolations ; 
and  faith,  by  which  we  are  thus  united,  is  a  di- 
vine work.  He  that  laid  this  foundation  in  Zion 
with  his  own  hand,  works  likewise,  with  the  same 
hand,  faith  in  the  heart,  by  which  it  is  knit  to  this 
corner  stone.J 

*  Hooker's  1st  Sermon  on  Jude,  §  11. 
f  2d  Sermon  on  Jude,  §  19. 

*  On  1st  Peter,  c.  ii:  6.  §  3. — "Faith  is  that  spirit, 
ual  mouth  in  us  whereby  we  are  made  partakers  of 
Christ,  he  being,  by  this  means,  as  truly  and  every 
way  as  effectually  made  ours  as  the  meat  and  drink 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  23 

I  have  thus  enlarged  on  this  part  of  our  sub- 
ject, because,  however  great  the  value  and  neces- 
sity of  visible  ordinances  and  sacraments  to  the 
visible  form  of  the  otherwise  invisible  house  of 
God ;  and  however  important  their  uses  as 
divinely  appointed  instruments  in  leading  sinners 
to  Christ,  and  in  helping  them  to  abide  in  him  ; 
we  cannot  keep  too  distinct  the  great  truth,  nor 
urge  it  too  plainly,  that  it  is  not  these  which  con- 
stitute the  true  Church  of  God,  whatever  their 
office  as  parts  of,  and  as  essential  to,  its  visible 
form  ;  that  the  great  constituent  act  on  which  the 
whole  being  of  the  true  Church  depends,  is  just 
that  on  which  all  true  piety  in  each  soul  depends 
— the  coming  of  sinners,  each  for  himself,  unto 
Christ,  by  faith;  that  in  proportion  as  this  indi- 
vidual exercise  of  faith,  immediately  upon  Christ, 
increases  in  strength,  and  thus  draws  more  and 
more  life  from  him  into  each  soul,  so  increases 
the  life  and  holiness  of  the  Church — in  other 
words,  that  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  is  not  a 
sort  of  corporate  investment  in  something  called 
the  body  of  the  Church,  independently  of  the 

■which  we  receive  into  our  natural  bodies." — Usher's 
Sermon  before  House  of  Commons.  Jj 


24  THE    HOLY 

spiritual  character  of  its  several  members,  from 
which  body,  as  a  fountain,  theirs  is  drawn,  and 
which  continues  ever  the  same  in  fulness,  whe- 
ther they  severally  be  holy,  more  or  less :  but 
that  it  is  simply  the  aggregate  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  holiness  of  all  individual  believers,  severally 
united  to,  and  drawing  life  immediately  from, 
Christ;  that  to  facilitate  this  individual  deriving 
of  life  directly  from  Christ  all  the  way  of  our 
pilgrimage,  each  for  himself,  drinking  of  that  rock 
which  follows  us,  and  gathering  of  that  manna 
which,  to  the  believer,  daily  cometh  down  from 
heaven,  is  the  great  object  of  all  the  external 
institutions  of  the  Church ;  and  that  whenever 
they  become  so  employed  or  regarded  that  they 
perform  not  this  subordinate  office,  especially 
when  placed  so  high  in  dignity  that  they  stand 
as  evidences  of  the  possession  of  grace,  instead 
of  only  signs  and  seals  and  means  of  grace;  that 
they  intercept,  instead  of  aiding  the  soul's  direct 
looking  unto  Jesus  for  righteousness  and  life, 
rendering  access  to  Him  less  simple,  less  per- 
sonal, less  immediate,  and  more  vicarious — more 
by  intervening  and  intercessory  agencies;  when 
they  become  themselves  the  objects  of  faith  in- 
stead of  its  auxiliaries— assuming,  in  any  degree, 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  25 

to  stand  as  vicars  of  Christ  to  the  soul,  inviting 
reliance  in  themselves  instead  of  glorying,  like 
John  the  Baptist,  to  point  the  sinner  away  from 
them  to  the  Lamb  of  God  ;  whenever  thus  used,, 
(we  cannot  say  it  too  strongly,)  they  are  griev- 
ously perverted  and  dishonored. 

Never  did  the  forerunner  of  our  Lord  appear 
more  truly  great  than  when  retired  most  behind 
his  message,  and  endeavoring  to  centre  all  atten- 
tion upon  Him  who  was  to  baptize,  not  with 
water,  but  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  Never  do  the 
visible  ordinances  of  the  Church  appear  in  their 
real  beauty  and  dignity  as  when  their  signs  are 
most  retired  behind  the  great  truths  they  signify, 
and  most  effective  in  fixing  the  hearts  of  those 
who  come  to  them  on  the  person  and  offices  of 
that  Saviour  whose  inward  grace  they  pledge, 
and  to  faith  convey. 

How  prone  are  christian  men  to  lose  sight  of 
the  real  adorning  of  the  house  of  God  ;  to  think 
of  the  type  more  than  the  reality;  to  dwell  on 
the  outward  appearance  which,  however  costly 
and  magnificent,  like  the  most  fine  gold  of  the 
temple  of  Jerusalem,  is  temporal ;  instead  of  the 
glorious  jewelry  of  the  spiritual  sanctuary  which 
is  unseen  and  eternal.  How  prone  we  are,  while 
3 


26  THE    HOLY 

estimating  very  highly,  as  we  ought,  the  assem- 
bling together  of  the  many  to  the  solemnities  of 
the  sanctuary,  to  make  a  low  practical  estimate, 
comparatively,  of  the  value  of  the  coming  of  one 
sinner  to  Christ,  by  a  living  faith.  Angels,  in  the 
presence  of  God,  rejoice  over  one  sinner  that 
repenteth ;  and  all  the  worth  they  see  in  our  out- 
ward things,  is  their  tendency  to  advance  the 
repentance  and  faith  of  sinners.  But  we — how 
prone  to  take  the  means  for  ends,  satisfying  our- 
selves too  much  with  the  dignity  and  propriety 
of  the  visible  array — zealous  to  gather  about  our 
altar  the  tributes  of  wealth  and  taste — the  sculp- 
ture, the  architecture,  the  robe,  the  chaunt, — all, 
it  may  be,  as  is  well  befitting  the  courts  of  the 
Lord's  house  ;  but  looking  too  little  beyond  these 
swr/ace-things,  to  inquire  how  far  it  may  be  hoped 
the  inward  adorning  of  faith  that  worketh  by  love, 
and  hath  fruit  unto  holiness,  is  keeping  pace.— 
Alas !  let  us  not  forget  what  emptiness  and  no- 
thingness are  in  the  one,  but  as  it  is  met  at  each 
point  and  filled  out  with  the  reality  of  the  other; 
that  dead  materials,  wood,  hay,  stubble,  however 
covered  over  with  the  sacramental  robe  of  a  chris- 
tian profession,  are  stubble  still ;  that  the  spiritual 
death  of  a  merely  professing  christian,  instead  of 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  27 

being  made  less  dead  by  being  arrayed  in  the  cir- 
cumstance of  life,  is  only  made  the  more  awful  by 
being  thus  laid  out  in  state.  The  painted  corpse, 
dressed  as  in  life,  is  the  most  revolting  form  of 
death.  But  there  is  a  way  to  be  adding  ever  in- 
creasing beauty  and  glory  to  the  house  of  God. 
Oh  !  that  we  may  prize  it  more  and  more  !  Go 
out  into  the  lanes  and  highways  ;  find  some  out- 
cast wretch,  some  stray  fragment  of  the  univer- 
sal wreck  of  man,  some  trampled  stone  in  the 
miry  clay— sound  aloud  the  word  of  the  Lord — 
that  harp  of  blessed  music,  by  which  the  Spirit 
draws  dead  stones  to  Christ.  By  and  by,  under 
the  power  of  God,  blessing  the  word,  that  soul 
is  led,  in  the  strong  captivity  of  the  truth,  to 
Christ.  No  sooner  does  he  touch  that  rock,  than 
the  virtue  of  a  new  life  comes  unto  him,  and  he 
lives.  The  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  his 
heart.  The  beautiful  garniture  of  inward  graces, 
more  precious  than  the  most  fine  gold,  adorns  him. 
He  is  united  to  Christ,  and  through  him  to  God. 
What  a  miracle  of  Grace  !  How  wonderful  that 
communication  of  life — that  resurrection  from 
the  dead — that  ascension  of  the  regenerated  soul 
to  "sit  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ."  Look 
unto  the  rock  whence  he  was  hewn,  and  the  hole 


28  THE    HOLY 

of  the  pit  whence  he  was  digged  !  How  is  God 
glorified  in  such  an  addition  to  His  Church ! 
What  joy  is  it  to  the  angels  that  do  His  will ! 
By  such  additions,  is  the  Church  a  building  of 
God.  Thus  does  it  rise  towards  heaven.  These 
are  thy  jewels,  daughter  of  Zion  !  Thy  "  walls 
salvation,  thy  gates  praise  !' 

In  all  that  we  have  now  said,  we  have  scarce- 
ly hinted  at  what  is  called  the  visible  Church, 
as  distinguished  from  the  invisible.  We  have 
spoken  exclusively  of  that  Church  which,  in  the 
words  of  the  Martyr  Ridley,  "standeth  only  of 
living  stones,  and  true  Christians,  not  only  out- 
wardly in  name  and  title,  but  inwardly  in  heart 
and  truth."*  This  we  have  spoken  of  as  the 
only  real  Church,  because  the  only  "  household 
of  faith."  All  are  of  it  who  are  living  a  life  of 
faith  on  the  Son  of  God  ;  none  are  of  it,  who  are 
not  living  that  life. 

But  we  do  not  deny  that  the  name  of  Church 
is  also  applied  in  Scripture  to  the  whole  mul- 
titude of  those  who,  by  participation  in  the 
ordinances  of  the  gospel,  profess  the  faith  of 
Christ,  and  hence  are  called  Christians.     This 

*  Bishop  Ridley's  Work's,  (Parker  Soc.  Ed.)  p.  126. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  29 

is  what  is  called  the  visible  Church.  But 
what  do  we  mean  by  this  language  ?  Because 
we  call  all  professing  Christians,  the  visible 
Church,  and  only  real  Christians,  the  invisible 
Church,  is  it  meant  that  there  are  two  real 
Churches  ;  or  only  that  the  real  Church,  which 
we  term  "  a  body  mystical,  because  the  mystery 
of  the  conjunction  of  the  several  members  in 
Christ,  is  removed  altogether  from  sense;"  and 
which  we  call  also  the  invisible,  "  because  the 
parts  thereof  are  some  in  heaven  with  Christ,  and 
the  rest  that  are  on  earth,  (although  their  persons 
be  visible)  no  man  can  infallibly  tell  who  they 
be;"*  is  it  that  this  only  true  Church  is  made 
visible,  (so  far  as  at  present  it  can  be,)  under  the 
visible  ordinances,  the  visible  profession,  and  the 
wider  amplitude  of  the  other  ?  Certainly  this  is 
the  true  view.  The  visible  Church  is  the 
Church,  as  seen  of  men,  in  the  mixed  mass  of  the 
true  and  the  false,  the  genuine  and  the  coun- 
terfeit, people  of  God.  The  invisible  Church  is 
the  same  Church,  as  seen  only  of  God,  in  the  un- 
mixed company  of  all  His  faithful  people.  The 
one  is  that  great  flock,  gathered  together  by  the 

*  Hooker's  Eccl.  Pol.,  b.  iii.  §  1. 
3* 


30  THE    HOLY 

call  of  the  Gospel,  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  to 
the  professed  following  of  the  Good  Shepherd, 
in  which  the  sheep  of  his  pasture  are  mingled 
with  the  goats  that  know  him  not,  and  are  none 
of  his ;  all,  however,  visibly,  that  is, professedly, 
his  flock.  The  other  is  simply  so  much  of  that 
mixed  multitude  as  do  truly  hear  the  voice  of  the 
Shepherd,  and  follow  him,  and  unto  whom  he 
giveth  eternal  life. 

To  call  all  the  visible  Church,  the  Church  of 
God,  when  it  is  not  all  really  the  Church,  but 
only  contains  it,  and  when  indeed  a  very  great 
part  is  really  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  is  only 
consistent  with  a  mode  of  speech  common  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  in  ordinary  life.  We  speak  of 
the  husk,  while  it  contains  the  corn,  as  the  corn, 
though  in  itself  fit  only  to  be  burned.  All  the 
stately  structure  at  Jerusalem  was  called  in 
Scripture  the  Temple,  while  the  sanctuary,  far 
within,  and  making  only  a  small  part  of  the 
whole  structure,  but  distinguished  from  all  the 
rest  by  having  within  it,  the  mercy-seat  and  the 
glory  of  God,  was  really  the  Temple.  All  the 
people  of  Israel  were  called  "the  people  of 
God,"  "the  Israel  of  God,"  "the  circumci- 
sion," "  the  congregation"  (or  Church)  of  the 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  31 

Lord,  because  all  were  visibly  so,  by  the  profes- 
sion which  all  made  in  the  visible  ordinances  of 
the  Jewish  Church.  But,  said  St.  Paul,  "  all 
are  not  Israel,  that  are  of  Israel ;"  neither  be- 
cause they  are  all  the  seed  of  Abraham  are  they 
all  children  of  the  promise  made  to  Abraham* 
"  He  is  not  a  Jew  that  is  one  outwardly,  neither 
is  that  circumcision  which  is  outward  in  the 
flesh.  But  he  is  a  Jew  which  is  one  inwardly  ; 
and  circumcision  is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spi- 
rit, and  not  in  the  letter  ;  ivhose  praise  is  not 
of  men  but  of  God"\  Thus  did  St.  Paul  draw 
the  distinction  between  the  visible  or  professing 
Church,  andthe  real  but  invisible  Church,  under 
the  Mosaic  dispensation.  All  the  children  of 
Abraham,  according  to  the  flesh,  all  the  children 
of  the  external  covenant,  all  that  were  Jews  by 
birth  and  sacrament,  were  of  the  visible  congre- 
gation or  professing  Church  of  Israel.  But  all 
were  not  "  of  Israel,"  the  true  Israel.  The  true 
Church  of  God  was  only  of  those  who  were 
Jews  inwardly;  who  had  received  the  circumci- 
sion "  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,''''  and  were 
thus  known  to  the  searcher  of  all  hearts,  however 
unknown  in  that  respect  to  men.  To  them  only 
*  Rom.  ix.  6, 7,  8.  f  Rom.  iii.  28, 29. 


32  THE   HOLY 

belonged  the  promises,  because  they  only  were 
the  children  of  faithful  Abraham.  St.  Paul  found 
no  fault  with  the  usual  mode  of  speech  in  which 
all  were  said  to  be  of  the  circumcision  who  had 
received  the  sign  or  sacrament  of  circumcision  ; 
but  he  thought  it  highly  important  to  be  very 
distinct  in  his  instruction  on  the  point  that  the 
sign  was  not  the  thing  ;  that  the  sacrament  of 
circumcision  was  not  the  circumcision.  It  was 
the  thing  only  sacrament  ally,  or  in  the  sign ;  not 
in  the  reality.  It  was  the  visible  rite ;  not  the 
invisible  grace.  It  made  a  visible  or  professed 
Israelite,  not  "  an  Israelite  indeed ;"  for  circumci- 
sion (said  he)  is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit, 
and  not  in  the  letter.11 

Precisely  the  analogous  use  of  language  extends 
to  all  that  is  visible  of  the  Church  under  the 
Gospel.  There  is  but  one  real  baptism,  "  not 
the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of  the  flesh,  but 
the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards 
God;11*  not  the  outward  washing,  but  the  in- 
ward sanctiflcation — for  Baptism,  precisely  as  cir- 
cumcision, is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  and 
not  in  the  letter,  ivhose  praise  is  not  of  men  but 
of  God.  Still  that  outward  washing  is  called 
*  1  Pet.  iii.  21. 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  33 

baptism,  just  as  the  outward  Jewish  sacrament 
was  called  circumcision.  But  it  is  important 
now,  as  in  St.  Paul's  time,  to  keep  it  very  dis- 
tinctly in  mind  that  it  is  only  sacramental  bap- 
tism, only  the  sacrament  or  sign  of  baptism — not 
the  thing.  The  real  baptism  is  invisible,  "whose 
praise  is  not  of  men  but  of  God."  The  sign  or 
sacrament  is  not  depreciated  in  this ;  but  the  thing 
signified  is  relatively  honoured  above  it.* 

*  "All  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  (says  Hooker) 
who  receive  the  sacraments  of  his  grace." — Eccl.  Pol., 
b.  v.  §  17. 

"  External  baptism  and  the  waters  of  Noah  are  types 
of  the  same  rank ;  both  types  or  shadows  of  that  inter- 
nal baptism  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  which  we  are  in- 
corporated into  the  body  of  Christ  and  become  more 
undoubtedly  safe  from  the  everlasting  fire,  than  such 
as  entered  into  Noah's  Ark  were  from  the  deluge  of 
water." — Dr.  Jackson's  Treatise  on  the  Church. — Goode's 
Edition.     Lind.  p.  97. 

"Although  baptism  be  a  sacrament  to  be  received 
and  honourably  used  of  all  men,  it  sanctifieih  no  man. 
And  such  as  attribute  the  remission  of  sin  to  the  ex- 
ternal rite,  doth  offend  ***  Such  as  be  baptized  must 
remember  that  repentance  and  faith  precede  the  ex- 
ternal sign ;  and  in  Christ,  the  purgation  was  inwardly 
obtained,  before  the  external  rite  was  given.  So  that 
there  are  two  kinds  of  baptism — the  one  interior  which 


34  THE    HOLY 

Again,  there  is  but  one  real  communion  of  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,  that  of  those  who  feed 
on  Christ,  in  their  hearts,  by  faith,  with  thanks- 
giving. And  yet  in  Scripture  the  visible  sacra- 
ment is  called  the  communion.  "  The  bread 
which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion  of 
the  body  of  Christ?11*  But  in  strictness  of 
speech  it  is  not  the  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ,  but  only  the  sacrament,  or  divinely  insti- 

is  the  cleansing  of  the  heart,  the  drawing  of  the  Father, 
the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  this  baptism  is 
in  man,  when  he  believeth  and  trusteth  that  Christ  is 
the  only  author  of  his  salvation.  ****  So  it  is  in  the 
Church  of  Christ :  man  is  made  the  brother  of  Christ, 
and  heir  of  eternal  life,  by  God's  only  mercy  received 
by  faith  before  he  receive  any  ceremony  to  confirm 
and  manifest  openly  his  right  and  title.***  Thus  as- 
sured of  God,  and  cleansed  from  sin  in  Christ,  he  hath 
the  livery  of  God  given  unto  him,  baptism,  the  which 
no  Christian  should  neglect;  and  yet  not  attribute  his 
sanctification  unto  the  external  sign,  as  the  King's 
majesty  may  not  attribute  his  right  unto  the  crown,  but 
unto  God  and  unto  his  father,  who  have  not  only  given 
him  grace  to  be  born  into  the  world,  but  also  to  govern 
as  a  king  in  the  world ;  whose  right  and  title  the  crown 
confirmeth  and  sheweth  the  same  unto  all  the  world." — Works 
of  Hooper,  Bishop  and  Martyr.  (Parker  Soc.  Ed.)  pp.  74, 75« 
*  1  Cor.  x.  16. 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  35 

tuted  sign,  of  that  communion.     It  is  the  visible 
communion.     The  real  is  invisible.* 

It  is  an  old  saying  of  St.  Augustine,  quoted  in 
our  Homilies,!  and  very  common  in  our  old  writ- 

*  Art.  XXVIII. 

f  Homily  on  Common  Prayer  and  Sacraments. 

"The  thing  itself  in  this  sacrament  (the  Eucharist) 
that  is  the  precious  body  of  Christ  broken,  and  his 
innocent  blood  shed,  be  absent ;  yet  be  the  bread  and 
the  wine  called  the  body  broken  and  the  blood-shedding 
according  to  the  nature  of  a  sacrament,  to  set  forth, 
the  better  the  thing  done  and  signified  in  the  sacra- 
ment. There  is  done  in  the  sacrament  the  memory  and 
remembrance  of  Christ's  death,  which  was  done  on  the 
cross,  where  his  precious  body  and  blood  was  rent 
and  torn,  shed  and  poured  out  for  our  sins. 

"  With  this  agreeth  the  mind  of  St.  Augustine. — id 
Bonifacium,  Epist.  xxiii. — Si  enim  sacramenta  quandam 
similitudinem  earum  rerum  quarum  sacramenta  sunt,  non 
haberent,  omnino  sacramenta  non  escent : — that  is  to  say, 
1  If  sacraments  had  not  some  proportion  and  likeness 
of  the  things  whereof  they  be  sacraments,  they  were 
no  sacraments  at  all.  And  thus  rather  of  the  simili- 
tude and  signification  of  the  thing  which  they  repre- 
sent and  signify,  they  take  the  name,  and  not  that  indeed 
they  be  as  they  be  named.' 

So  after  the  manner  is  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  body 
called  Christ's  body ;  and  the  sacrament  of  Christ's 
blood  called  his  blood ;  and  the  sacrament  of  faith  is 


36  THE    HOLY 

ers,  for  the  illustration  of  this  precise  point,  that 
"  sacraments  do,  for  the  most  part,  receive  the 
names  of  the  self-same  things  which  they  sig- 
nify." In  this  application  of  terms,  the  Sacra- 
ment of  Communion  is  called  the  Communion; 
the  Sacrament  of  Regeneration  is  called  the  Re- 
generation. By  analogous  terms,  the  receiver  of 
these  sacramental  signs  and  visible  notes  of  a 
Christian,  is  called  a  Christian,  whether  he  be  a 
Christian  inwardly  or  not;  and  the  vast  multitude, 
in  the  whole  earth,  united  into  one  professing 
community,  under  the  same  signs,  are  called  the 
Christian  Church  ;  though  it  is  no  uncharitable- 
ness  to  suppose  that  an  immense  proportion  of 
them  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  so  are 
none  of  his,  and  consequently  are  no  more  his 
Church,  than  a  merely  professing  Christian  is  a 
true  Christian,  or  than  a  merely  external  commu- 
nicant is  a  real  communicant  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ.  The  visible  or  professed  Church  of  God 
they  all  certainly  are  ;  because  they  are  the  com- 
pany of  the  visible  or  professing  people  of  God. 

called  faith.  As  St.  Augustine  learnedly  and  godly 
saith  in  the  same  argument, '  Let  the  word  come  unto 
the  element,  and  then  is  made  the  sacrament.' " — Bishop 
Hooper's  Works,  (Parker  Soc.  Ed.)  p.  515,  16. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  37' 

But  the  true  Church  of  God,  to  which  belong 
all  the  glorious  titles  and  privileges  and  promises 
of  God,  in  Scripture  ;  which  is  "  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth,"  and  against  which  the 
gates  of  hell  cannot  prevail,  that  company  cannot 
be  but  in  proportion  as  it  consists  (as  our  good 
Hooker  says  on  this  head)  "  of  none  but  true 
Israelites,  true  sons  of  Abraham,  true  servants 
and  saints  of  God."* 

Now  we  find  no  fault  with  this  use  of  lan- 
guage. It  is  scriptural.  Much  less,  when  we 
speak  thus  of  the  visible  form  of  the  Church,  do 
we  mean  to  diminish  aught  from  your  deepest 
sense  of  the  duty  and  importance  of  those  seve- 
ral divinely  appointed  signs  and  forms  by  which 
the  invisible  Church,  like  angels  of  old,  when 
they  appeared  to  man,  puts  on  a  body  that  she 
may  stand  confessed  before  the  world,  and  by 
which  the  invisible  God,  as  when  He  spoke  to 
Moses  out  of  the  burning  bush,  gives  sensible  form 
to  His  presence  among  His  people — "dwell- 
ing in  them  and  walking  in  them,"  under  the  signs 
of  sacraments,  as  He  dwelt  in  the  camp  of  Israel, 

*  For  a  further  view  of  the  doctrine  of  our  Church 
on  this  head,  see  App.  B. 

4 


38  THE    HOLY 

under  the  sign  of  the  cloud  by  day,  and  of  fire 
by  night. 

The  evil  is,  when,  through  fault,  not  of  the 
thing,  or  the  language,  but  of  men's  want  of 
spiritual  discernment,  the  spiritual  signification 
is  lost  in  the  relative  misplacement  of  the  sign  ; 
when  the  right  outward  use  of  church  ordinan- 
ces is  confounded  with  union  to  Christ  by  faith, 
in  the  one  communion  and  fellowship  of  the 
spiritual  house  of  God ;  so  that  we  get  to  feel  a 
sort  of  security  that  in  carrying  on  the  former, 
with  all  regularity,  we  are  necessarily  attaining 
the  latter;  and  thus  the  communicant  becomes 
negligent  of  the  great  question,  '  am  I  a  living 
stone  of  the  House  of  God,  built  by  faith  upon 
Christ  the  head  of  the  corner?'  and  the  minister 
becomes  negligent  of  that  great  instrument,  in 
the  hand  of  the  Spirit,  of  gathering  the  scattered 
stones  of  the  fallen  temple  of  the  first  creation, 
into  the  more  glorious  temple  of  the  new  crea- 
tion in  Christ  Jesus — the  preaching  of  the  Word 
of  God. 

The  tendencies  to  this  are  stronger  at  some 
times  than  at  others.  Under  some  circumstan- 
ces, we  feel  called  to  preach,  with  chief  enlarge- 
ment upon  the  visible  institutions  of  the  Church. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  39 

Under  others,  upon  the  invisible  structure  of 
the  Church ;  and  thus  we  have,  at  this  time, 
confined  our  attention  so  much  to  its  only  foun- 
dation, Christ;  to  its  only  materials,  sinners 
made  alive  in  Christ,  through  faith  uniting  them 
to  him  ;  to  its  essential  unity  and  communion, 
as  found  in  the  vital  relation  of  each  to  Christ, 
as  the  common  life,  and  the  joining  together  of 
all  in  Him,  so  as  to  be  members  one  of  another, 
in  his  one  mystical  body. 

This  church,  whether  great  or  small,  is  the 
only  true  host  of  God  on  earth,  for  true  service 
in  that  great  battle,  which  is  yet  to  be  fought,  be- 
fore Satan  shall  go  into  bonds  for  a  thousand 
years — and  which  draweth  nigh — perhaps  is  at 
the  door.  When  Gideon  went  against  the  host 
of  Midian,  then  encamped  against  Israel,  his 
apparent  force  was  two  and  thirty  thousand. 
But  it  was  only  his  visible  strength.  The  num- 
ber was  diminished,  by  tests  of  divine  appoint- 
ment, until  all  that  were  not  to  be  relied  on  when 
faith  in  God  was  to  be  all  the  strength,  had  de- 
parted. Three  hundred  only  remained.  But 
the  Lord  said  :  "  By  the  three  hundred  men,  I 
will  deliver  the  Midianites  into  thine  hand."  All 
the  strength  of  the  original  thirty  and  two  thou- 


40  THE    HOLY 

sand,  for  that  fight  of  faith,  was  in  those  three 
hundred  that  remained.  Such  is  the  Church. 
Visibly,  the  host  is  a  multitude  without  number, 
comprehending  the  whole  professing  people. 
Really,  the  whole  strength  for  the  battle  with 
the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  is  in 
the  inner,  the  smaller,  and  apparently  so  much 
weaker,  company  of  those  who  live  by  faith. 
Should  a  separation  of  these  be  made  from  all 
the  rest,  surely  they  would  appear  a  very  small 
band  in  comparison  with  the  whole  array,  a  lit- 
tle flock,  and  a  great  part  of  them  consisting  of 
the  poor  of  this  world,  the  unlearned,  the  sim- 
ple, the  widows,  the  fatherless,  the  men  of  no 
might,  but  nevertheless  the  praying,  the  believ- 
ing, the  wrestling,  the  hoping,  the  contrite  ones, 
the  people  that  have  the  hope  of  salvation  for  a 
helmet  and  the  word  of  God  for  a  sword.  These, 
however,  are  the  living  ones,  whether  few  or 
many,  unto  whom  the  word  of  the  Lord  has 
come,  saying,  "  Fear  not  little  flock,  for  it  is 
your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the 
kingdom. "  These  are  that  true  body  of  Christ, 
which  is  indeed  His  "fulness — the  fulness  of 
Him  that  filleth  all  in  all."*  This  comparatively 
*  See  Hooker  on  Eph.  i.  23,  b.  5,  §  56. 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  41 

little  flock  is  that  church,  that  "  blessed  company 
of  all  faithful  people;"  that  "elect"  people, 
"  knit  together  in  one  communion  and  fellowship 
in  the  mystical  body  of  Christ,"  (as  our  Prayer 
Book  describes  it,)  unto  which  alone  pertaineth 
the  promises.  "  Whatsoever  we  read  in  Scrip- 
ture concerning  the  endless  love  and  saving  mer- 
cy which  God  showeth  towards  His  Church,  the 
only  proper  subject  thereof  is  this  Church.  Con- 
cerning this  flock  it  is  that  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
hath  promised  :  'I  give  unto  them  eternal  life, 
and  they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any 
pluck  them  out  of  my  hands.'  "* 

"Therefore  is  the  strength  of  this  Church  great 
indeed.  It  prevaileth  against  Satan,  it  conquer- 
eth  sin,  it  hath  death  in  derision,  neither  princi- 
palities nor  powers  can  throw  it  down ;  it  leadeth 
the  world  captive,  and  bringeth  every  enemy 
that  riseth  up  against  it  to  confusion  and  shame, 
and  all  by  Faith  ;  for  '  this  is  the  victory  that 
overcometh  the  world,  even  our  Faith.'  "t 

But  when  I  speak  of  the  Church  of  God  as 
comparatively  a  little  flock,  it  is  only  one  sec- 

*  Hooker,  b.  3,  §  1. 

f  Hooker's  2d  Sermon  on  Jude,  §  15. 

4* 


42  THE   HOLY 

tion  of  it  that  we  mean — that  which  is  militant 
here  on  the  earth.  We  must  not  forget  that  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  the  Communion  of 
Saints,  the  General  Assembly  and  Church  of  the 
First  Born,  whose  names  are  written  in  heaven, 
has  only  one  of  its  thousand  generations  here 
on  earth.  Here  we  have  but  the  nursery  of  that 
great  household  of  God,  now  sitting  in  heavenly 
places,  in  Christ  Jesus.  Generation  upon  ge- 
neration, ever  since  the  world  began,  has  been 
flowing  into  that  great  congregation  of  white- 
robed,  blood-washed,  glorified  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect.  Oh !  the  multitude  there  that 
cannot  be  numbered,  with  which  we  have  com- 
munion, as  brethren  together  in  Christ  Jesus, 
our  common  portion  and  life.  Glorious  temple 
of  the  living  God  !  It  isgrowingstill  in  breadth, 
and  length,  and  height,  and  glory.  "All  the 
building  fitly  framed  together"  in  Christ,  "groio- 
eth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord.19 

Nothing  can  stop  that  growth.  In  troublous 
times,  or  the  opposite,  this  House  of  God  must 
grow.  Its  Maker  and  Builder  is  God.  All 
things  work  together  for  its  good.  The  world 
is  preserved  but  that  its  walls  may  be  completed, 
and  when  they  are  done,  the  time  of  the  world 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  43 

will  be  ended.  It  grows  in  height,  in  the  spirit- 
ual, heavenly  graces  of  christians,  as  well  as  in 
amplitude,  in  the  number  of  those  who  have 
the  spiritual  grace  of  true  christians.  It  grows 
in  the  constant  addition  of  more  and  more  souls 
joined  unto  Christ.  It  grows  in  the  continual 
ascension  of  thousands  upon  thousands,  from  the 
feeble  state  of  saints  on  earth,  to  the  established, 
perfected  state  of  those  in  heaven.  Who  can 
measure  its  rapid  increase  by  all  these  modes, 
toward  "  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  ful- 
ness of  Christ?"  True  it  "  cometh  not  with 
observation."  This  growth  is  little  visible  to 
man.  As  in  the  temple  of  Solomon,  its  type, 
"  there  was  neither  hammer,  nor  any  tool  of  iron 
heard  in  the  house,  while  it  was  building,"  so 
the  hand  of  God  carries  up  this  spiritual  struc- 
ture, as  he  carries  on  his  work  in  the  heart  of 
each  of  his  people,  by  a  progress  which  little 
engages  the  notice  of  the  world.  Upon  the 
outer  courts,  upon  the  visible  temple,  the  sound 
of  man's  working  is  heard.  Upon  the  inner 
sanctuary,  the  growth  is  as  silent  as  was  the 
creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  because 
"  the  builder  and  maker,  now  as  then,  is 
God." 


44  THE   HOLY 

r 

It  was  a  striking  feature  in  the  building  of 
the  temple  of  Solomon  that  the  materials  came 
from  so  many  different  and  distant  regions. 
The  isles  of  the  sea,  the  mines  of  Ophir,  the 
forests  of  Lebanon,  the  quarries  of  Tyre,  all 
conspired.  Thus  has  risen,  thus  will  be  com- 
pleted at  last,  the  temple  of  God.  The  ministry 
of  the  gospel,  in  all  lands,  is  gathering  souls  of 
men  to  be  joined  unto  the  Lord.  The  time 
cometh — probably  is  nigh  at  hand — when  "  the 
abundance  of  the  sea  shall  be  converted,  and  the 
forces  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come"  unto  Zion  ; 
when  "  the  sons  of  strangers  shall  build  her  walls, 
and  kings  shall  minister  unto  her."  The  Lord 
hasten  the  time  !  At  last  the  work  will  be  done. 
The  Church  will  be  spotless — her  walls  perfected 
— the  two  companies  on  earth  and  in  heaven, 
will  be  one  with  Christ  in  his  glory  ;  the  scaffold- 
ing of  ordinances  will  be  taken  down ;  the  human 
builders  will  have  no  more  to  do ;  the  ministry 
of  men  will  pass  away  before  the  personal  min- 
istry of  the  great  Prophet,  Priest  and  King,  as 
that  of  planets,  when  the  sun  arises.  Then  will 
cease  the  frailties  that  dishonour,  and  the  conten- 
tions and  divisions  that  disturb  the  peace  of,  the 
present  militant  portion  of  the  Church.     With 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  45 

the  endless  separation  of  all  who  have  not  the 
mind  of  Christ,  will  cease  the  distinction  between 
the  Church  visible  and  invisible.  All  the  visible 
of  that  finished  Temple  will  be  spiritual ;  all  the 
spiritual  will  be  perfect.  The  work  of  redemp- 
tion will  be  complete.  The  new  creation  will 
be  finished.  The  everlasting  Sabbath  will  then 
begin;  Jesus,  resting  from  his  work,  and  seeing 
of  "the  travail  of  his  soul,"  and  satisfied  :  all  his 
people  satisfied  in  him  as  their  infinite  portion  ; 
He  satisfied  in  his  people ;  their  rest  glorious 
"in  the  holy  Catholic  Church;  the  communion 
of  saints,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  and  the  life  everlasting." 

Alas  !  we  cannot  think  of  that  unruffled  peace, 
thatceaseless  harmony,  that  great  harp  of  countless 
strings,  that  vast  choir  of  perfect  saints,  all  full  of 
the  same  joy,  without  thinking  with  deep  sorrow 
and  humiliation,  of  the  sad  contrast  in  the  church 
as  it  now  is  on  earth.  How  much  is  there  to  make 
us  mindful  that  this  portion  of  the  church  is  yet, 
in  regard  to  what  it  ought  to  be  now,  and  will  be 
hereafter,  precisely  as  each  of  her  members  on 
earth  is,  as  to  his  "  ripeness  of  age  in  Christ." 
The  whole  body  has  yet  need  to  grow  in  grace, 
just  as,   and  because,  each  single  christian  has 


46  THE    HOLY 

need  to  grow.  How  painfully  is  the  bond  of 
peace  among  christians  broken  by  incessant  and 
numberless  controversies  about  points  of  faith 
and  order,  so  that,  outwardly  seen,  there  appears 
little  else  than  conflicting  parties  striving  for  the 
mastery,  each  with  its  own  distinct  profession 
and  altar  and  ministry  and  interest  and  church, 
making  the  house  of  God  seem  a  Babel  of  jar- 
ring tongues,  and  the  brotherhood  of  christians  a 
den  of  strife.  But  deeply  as  this  is  to  be  sor- 
rowed over,  we  must  not  let  it  possess  our  minds 
so  much  as  to  make  us  forget  the  difference  be- 
tween "the  bond  of  peace"  and  "the  unity  of 
the  Spirit ;"  and  how  much  the  former  may  be 
broken,  while  the  latter  remains  undivided. — 
"The  bond  of  peace  is  the  common  use  of 
creeds  and  sacraments,"  and  belongs  to  all  that 
name  the  name  of  Christ  in  truth  or  not.  "  The 
unity  of  the  spirit  is  the  peculiar  of  the  saints, 
and  is  the  internal  confederation  and  conjunction 
of  the  members  of  Christ's  body  in  themselves 
and  to  their  head."*  The  one  is  external,  easily 
invaded  ;  the  other  is  internal,  laid  up  in  the  ark 
of  the  covenant;  it  is  our  life — "it  is  hid  with 

^*  Bp.  Taylor,  Dissuasive  from  Popery,  p.  2.  c.  i.  §  1. 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  47 

Christ  in  God."  Nothing  can  break  it  but  what 
can  break  the  bond  between  Christ  and  his  peo- 
ple. It  is  the  unity  of  one  Lord — one  sanctifying 
Spirit,  one  bread  of  life,  "  one  God  and  Father  of 
all."  It  is  essential  to  the  church  in  its  real, 
invisible  being.  Wherever  there  is  a  soul  under 
the  whole  heaven  who  is  united  to  Christ  by  a 
living  faith,  he  is  in  that  spiritual  union  with  all 
his  true  church.  Assemble  together  from  all 
parts  of  the  earth,  all  that  call  themselves  chris- 
tians !  They  are  not  all  united  by  the  Spirit,  in 
a  living  faith,  to  Christ ;  then  they  may  have 
"  thebond  of  peace"  unbroken,  but  they  are  not 
all  in  "the  unity  of  the  Spirit."  Gather  out  of 
them  as  many  as  are  truly  in  Christ,  living  stones 
built  together  in  him  ;  then  however  divided  as 
to  contents  of  creeds  and  doctrine  of  sacraments 
and  order  and  form,  and  however  the  bond  of 
peace  among  them  be  broken,  they  are  one  in 
Christ  Jesus  :  they  are  in  that  unity  of  the  Spirit 
which  makes  them  one  holy  temple  in  the  Lord, 
the  one  universal  church,  the  one  communion  of 
saints.*     To  have  a  common  head  and  life,  a 

*  "  The  holy  Catholic  Church  consists,  (says  Bishop 
Taylor,)  by  comprehension  and  actual  potential  enclo- 


48  THE    HOLY 

common  hope  and  obedience;  to  be  sanctified 
by  the  same  Spirit  of  holiness  ;  to  feel  the  same 
spiritual  wants  ;  to  contend  with  the  same  spir- 
itual enemies  ;  to  worship  at  the  same  throne  of 
grace ;  to  eat  of  the  same  spiritual  meat,  and 
drink  of  the  same  spiritual  rock  that  follows  us  ; 
thus  to  be  one,  and  thus  to  have  community  in 
everything  pertaining  essentially  to  the  love  of 
God  and  the  following  of  Christ : — this  is  to 
have  the  unity  of  the  Spirit — this  is  the  com- 
munion of  saints;  and  the  more  the  bond  of 
peace  is  broken  among  real  christians  of  different 
names,  the  more  should  we  love  to  recognize 
this  which  can  never  be  broken,  but  by  the  utter 
destruction  of  the  spiritual  house  of  God. 

And  after  all,  brethren,  how  little  is  the  dis- 
cord, compared  with  the  harmony  of  the  church  ! 
In  the  fiercest  tempests  that  rage  upon  the  ocean, 
it  is  but  the  mere  surface — the  visible  form  of 
the  great  deep  that  feels  their  power.  A  very 
little  way  beneath,  and  thence  all  down  to  the 

sure,  of  all  communions  of  holy  people. — Dissuasive 
from  Popery,  p.  2,  c.  i.  §  1.  Bishop  Ridley  says;— 
"The  holy  Catholic  Church,  which  is  the  communion  of 
sainto."— Ridley's  Works,  (Parker  Soc.,)  p.  122. 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  49 

unfathomable  depths,  is  a  perfect  calm.  To  the 
eye,  looking  on  the  outward  and  visible  of  the 
ocean,  all  seems  confusion  and  rage.  To  the 
thoughts  of  the  mind,  reaching  within  to  the 
great  heart  of  the  ocean,  and  comparing  the  vast 
magnitude  of  the  invisible  body  of  waters  un- 
moved, with  the  mere  covering  that  is  tossed  in 
the  storm,  it  seems  that  almost  all  is  peace. 

Thus  it  is  with  the  great  communion  and  fel- 
lowship, the  mystical  body,  of  all  God's  faithful 
people.  It  is  a  great  deep — a  boundless  ocean.  It 
is  "  the  fulness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all."  The 
storms  of  controversy,  the  strifes  of  conflicting 
divisions,  are  all  over  that  little  bay  which  is 
visible  to  us  out  of  the  whole  wide  sea.  You 
stand  low — a  single  wave  bounds  your  sight.  It 
seems  to  you  a  mountain : — You  feel  as  if  all 
were  convulsed  to  the  very  centre.  Could  you 
measure  how  much  of  all  this  confusion  is  about 
matters  which,  however  important,  affect  not  the 
fixed  settlement  of  all  christians  upon  the  one 
Saviour  of  all ; — could  you  look  down  into  the 
inner  life  of  the  people  of  God,  and  see  how  all 
that  is  spiritual  and  eternal  is  unmoved  ; — could 
you  compare,  at  one  view,  the  infinite  magnitude 
and  preciousness  of  those  great  interests  in  which 
5 


50  THE    HOLY 

all  who  are  in  Christ  must,  in  the  very  nature  of 
that  living  union  with  him,  agree,  with  the  rela- 
tive inferiority  of  those  about  which  they  differ; 
could  you  see  how  small  is  the  portion  of  the 
great  Catholic  Church  which  so  much  as  hears 
the  sound  of  the  waves  of  strife,  compared  with 
all  those  of  that  church  who  are  at  rest  with 
God,  in  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding; 
you  would  then  see  that  the  temporary  and  visi- 
ble confusion  and  distraction  are  as  nothing  to 
the  present  spiritual  harmony  of  the  Temple  of 
the  living  God.  You  would  see  that  the  present 
state  of  the  redeemed  church  is  truly  symbolised 
in  that  vision  of  St.  John,  wherein  he  saw  the 
four-and-twenty  elders,  as  representatives  of  the 
whole  communion  of  saints,  falling  down  before 
the  Lamb,  "  having  every  one  of  them  harps  and 
golden  vials  full  of  odours,  which  are  the  prayers 
of  saints."  "And  they  sung  a  new  song,  say- 
ing, Thou  art  worthy,  for  thou  wast  slain  and 
hast  redeemed  us  to  God,  by  thy  blood,  out  of 
every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation, 
and  hast  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God." 
And  now,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  take  any 
more  time,  comes  the  important  question,  which 
must  have  arisen  in  many  minds,  what  are  the 


CATHOLIC    CHURCH.  51 

consequences  of  the  views,  now  delivered,  as  to 
the  importance  of  those  great  features  of  the  visi- 
ble church  in  which  we,  as  members  of  a  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church,  so  widely  differ  from 
a  multitude  of  professing  christians  around  us  ? 
Are  the  importance  and  duty  of  contending  ear- 
nestly for  what  we  believe  to  be  of  apostolical 
institution  in  the  visible  body  of  the  church,  in 
any  wise  diminished  by  this  wide  distinction 
between  the  outward  and  visible  form,  and  the 
inward  and  invisible  being  of  the  church  ? 

We  answer — in  no  wise;  no  more  than  to 
draw  an  equally  broad  distinction  between  man, 
as  he  is  an  immortal  spirit,  and  man's  body,  depre- 
ciates the  importance  of  defending  the  latter 
against  all  mutilations. 

There  is  a  pregnant  passage  of  Hooker,  which 
could  be  enlarged  into  a  volume:  "As  those 
everlasting  promises  of  love,  mercy  and  blessed- 
ness belong  to  the  mystical  church,  even  so,  on 
the  other  side,  when  we  read  of  any  duty  which 
the  Church  of  God  is  bound  unto,  the  church 
whom  this  doth  concern  is  a  visible  and 
known  company."*     Now  each  true  christian 

*  Eccl.  Pol.  c.  iii.  §  1. 


52  THE   HOLY 

is  God's  temple.  When  you  speak  of  that 
christian,  as  God's  temple,  in  his  spiritual  rela- 
tions to  God,  as  the  receiver  of  his  promises, 
and  united  to  him,  through  Christ  Jesus;  you 
speak  with  reference  to  him  as  an  invisible 
and  spiritual  being.  He  worships  God  "in 
the  spirit."  "But  when  you  speak  of  that 
temple,  that  christian,  with  reference  to  what 
God  has  given  him  to  do  in  the  ivorld,  and  for 
the  world,  you  mean  that  man,  in  his  visible 
body — because,  though  he  can  live  out  of  the 
body,  he  cannot  come  into  contact  with  the 
world  without  that  body.  So  the  Church — the 
fellowship  of  all  true  people  of  God — when  you 
speak  of  what  God  has  given  it  to  do  in  the 
world,  you  speak  of  it  as  visible,  under  the  form 
of  a  "sensible  known  company,"  with  all  the  attri- 
butes of  an  ecclesiastical  body.  It  cannot  come 
into  contact  with  the  world  without  them.  Con- 
sequently, the  importance  of  the  visible  form,  or 
body,  of  the  spiritual  church,  and  therefore  of 
maintaining  it  as  God  hath  appointed  it,  is  pre- 
cisely measured  by  the  importance  of  all  that 
mighty  and  glorious  work  which  God  has  com- 
mitted to  his  people  for  the  salvation  of  all 
mankind. 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  53 

Again,  the  question  has  probably  arisen  in 
your  minds,  what  is  the  bearing  of  the  views  we 
have  given  on  the  relations  we  bear,  as  true 
christians,  to  believers  in  any  other  ecclesiastical 
connection.  Surely  it  is  a  most  interesting  and 
important  question  ;  and  I  have  no  disposition  to 
shun  it.  It  is  precisely  the  question  of  our 
Lord :  "  Who  are  my  brethren  ?  He  that  doeth 
the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the 
same  is  my  mother  and  sister  and  brother." — 
We  ask  the  same — Who  are  our  brethren? 
Who  belong  to  the  communion  of  saints,  that 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  which  we  believe  in,  as 
the  mystical  body  of  Christ?  We  answer: 
Every  soul  of  man  that  hath  a  living  faith  in 
him,  wherever  found,  whatever  called.  There 
is  no  difference  here.  Diversity  of  outward  and 
visible  church-institutions,  doubtless  makes  a 
great  difference  of  privilege,  and  of  benefit.  But 
it  makes  no  difference  in  the  reality  and  per- 
fectness  of  spiritual  union  to  Christ,  and  to  His 
Temple — His  living  Church,  among  those  in 
whom,  is  "like  precious  faith,"  in  Christ. 

I  beg  to  say  that  it  is  not  because  I  am  forced 
by  the  necessary  result  of  the  views  we  have 
taken  of  the  true  Church  of  God,  to  make  this 
5* 


54  THE    HOLY 

concession.  It  is  no  concession.  It  is  simply, 
the^glad  profession  of  a  blessed  truth  which  we 
love,  and  love  to  declare  and  embrace.  And  the 
more  we  have  to  be  separated  by  difference  of 
institutions  and  doctrines  ;  the  more  must  we  love 
to  remember  that  true  believers  in  Jesus  Christ 
are  one  in  him,  and  will  be  one  with  him  for- 
ever. I  cannot  allow  the  partition  walls  which 
divide  the  courts  of  the  Lord's  visible  house,  to 
prevent  me  from  the  precious  enjoyment  resulting 
from  the  thought  that  wherever  my  Lord  has  a 
true  believer,  I  have  a  brother;  that  if  a  poor 
sharer  in  the  fall  is  also  a  blessed  sharer  with  me 
in  the  saving  grace  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  no 
matter  how  he  may  stand  afar  off,  by  departing 
from  visible  institutions,  which  I  consider  of  great 
price,  and  which  ought  to  be  held  at  any  earthly 
cost,  he  is  still  united  to  me,  and  I  to  him,  as  bone 
with  bone,  in  that  living,  invisible,  body  of  which 
Christ  is  head,  and  no  member  of  which  shall 
ever  die. 

So  far  from  being  the  less  disposed  to  recog- 
nize our  union  with  all  penitent  believers  in 
Jesus,  as  being  one  with  us  in  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit,  because  of  the  wide  and  lamentable 
breaches  in  the  bond  of  peace,  we  ought  to  be  the 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  55 

more  desirous  of  doing  so,  precisely  in  propor- 
tion as  those  bonds  are  broken.  As  distributed 
into  separate  ecclesiastical  organizations,  we 
may  become  hereafter  more  and  more  separated 
— "  we  know  not  what  we  shall  be"  in  that  re- 
spect. The  great  adversary  may  succeed  in 
widening  us  yet  more  powerfully.  I  am  not  dis- 
posed to  give  up,  or  diminish,  our  firm  attachment 
to  any  one  of  our  great  distinctive  church  peculi- 
arities, for  the  sake  of  filling  up  the  sad  interval, 
in  such  respects,  between  us  and  others.  Those 
peculiarities  seem  to  me  to  involve  great  interests 
of  truth  and  order  which  cannot  be  compromised. 
But  the  more  I  stand  on  this  ground,  with  respect  to 
separate  ecclesiastical  organizations,  the  more  I 
love  to  believe  that  in  those  separated  and  conflict- 
ing visible  churches,  there  are  individuals,  (a  great 
multitude,  I  trust)  who  are  alike,  with  us,  united  to 
Christ,  my  Lord  and  Life,  by  a  living  faith  ;  and 
therefore  united  to  me,  as  brethren  in  the  family 
of  God,  and  united  to  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
and  Communion  of  Saints,  as  members  of  Christ 
and  his  kingdom.  Do  those  churches  contend 
with  ours,  and  we  with  them  ?  I  take  refuge 
from  the  affliction  of  such  controversy  (for  how- 
ever necessary  it  may  be,  it  is  an  affliction  to  a 


56  THE    HOLY 

Christian  mind) ;  I  take  comfort  under  all  such 
tribulations,  in  the  precious  truth  professed  in  that 
article  of  our  Creed,  "I  believe  in  the  Communion 
of  Saints." — The  sweetness  of  that  truth  was 
never  greater  to  a  Christian  heart  than  now,  when 
the  visible  Communion  of  Christians  seems  to  be 
becoming  more  and  more  broken,  and  their  real 
Communion  in  Christ  more  and  more  to  be 
known  only  as  a  matter  of  faith  in  God's  pro- 
mises to  make  and  hold  the  true  people  as  one 
in  Christ  Jesus.  The  trials  of  believers,  in  this 
respect,  I  do  not  suppose  have  reached  their 
height.  When  the  prophet  was  surrounded  with 
armed  forces  to  take  him,  and  his  servant  trem- 
bled at  the  danger,  the  prophet  prayed,  and  the 
eyes  of  his  servant  were  opened,  and  he  saw  a 
great  army  of  the  hosts  of  God,  come  down  from 
heaven,  surrounding  the  man  of  God,  and  ready 
to  do  battle  with  his  enemies.  The  compara- 
tively little  flock  of  God's  true  people  may  in  a 
few  years  find  themselves  in  a  similar  peril,  when 
it  will  be  more  felt  than  it  is  now,  how  comforting 
it  is  to  be  able  to  lift  up  the  eye  of  faith  and  see, 
under  all  the  conflicting  elements  of  the  visible 
Church,  a  brother  in  every  true  believer,  and  in 
all  the  people  of  God,  a  holy  Church,  the  unity 


CATHOLIC   CHURCH.  57 

of  which,  in  Christ,  cannot  be  broken,  and  against 
which  the  gates  of  hell  can  never  prevail. 

In  conclusion.  All  that  we  have  said,  preaches 
most  solemnly  to  every  soul  the  necessity  of 
seeing  that,  whatever  else  he  may  be,  he  is  in 
Christ  Jesus,  and  will  be  found  in  him,  when 
the  separation  of  the  great  day  shall  be  made 
between  the  true  flock  of  Christ,  and  all  that  only 
name  his  name.  Oh !  to  be  in  the  ark  of  Christ, 
when  the  flood  cometh  !  Oh  !  to  have,  besides  the 
handwriting  of  ordinances  upon  us,  when  God's 
inquisition  shall  be  made,  the  hand-writing  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  upon  our  souls,  witnessing  that  we 
are  His  people ;  that  seal,  whereby  the  Holy 
Ghost  seals  "  unto  the  day  of  Redemption."  St. 
Paul  understood  this,  and  counted  all  things  but 
loss,  all  externals  as  worthless,  compared  with 
being  "found  in  Christ,''  by  having  on  "the 
righteousness  of  God  by  faith."  Let  us  feel  his 
spirit !  Let  us  press  on  in  his  race !  Let  us, 
with  him,  bow  our  knees  "  unto  the  father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  the  whole  family  in 
heaven  and  earth  is  named,  that  he  would  grant 
us  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spirit,  in 
the  inner  man,  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  our  hearts 
by  faith  ;  that  we  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 


58  THE    HOLY    CATHOLIC   CHURCH. 

love  may  be  able  to  comprehend,  with  ail  saints, 
what  is  the  length,  and  breadth,  and  depth,  and 
height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ,  which 
passeth  knowledge,  that  we  may  be  filled  with 
all  the  fulness  of  God.  Now  unto  Him  that  is 
able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we 
ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that  work- 
eth  in  us,  unto  Him  be  glory,  in  the  Church,  by 
Christ  Jesus,  throughout  all  ages,  world  without 
end.     Amen."* 

*  Ephes.  iii. 


$ 


APPENDIX  A. 

Immediate  union  by  faith  to  Christ.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion of  vastly  greater  consequence  than  at  first  appears 
to  many,  whether  the  sinner  comes  by  faith  imme- 
diately to  Christ,  or  intermediately  only,  through  the 
sacraments  of  the  Church ;  whether  he  is  privileged 
to  come  nigh,  and  draw  life  directly,  from  Christ  the 
Head  ;  or  whether  he  can  only  come  to  His  visible 
body,  (the  visible  Church)  and  get  life  through  its 
sacramental  channels  and  ministrations ;  whether 
we  are  allowed  to  receive  the  precious  anointing  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  directly  from  the  head  of  our  Great 
High  Priest,  on  whom,  as  Man  for  us,  it  was  poured 
out  u  without  measure,"  each  believer  receiving  as 
directly  from  Christ  as  if  he  were  the  only  member  of 
Christ;  or  whether  the  several  believers  can  only  re- 
ceive that  anointing  of  grace  when  it  has  first  flowed 
down  to  something  called  Christ's  body,  abstractedly 
from  the  several  members  comprising  Christ's  people, 
and  thence  down  to  the  skirts  of  his  clothing. 

The  docrrine  is  maintained  by  many,  who  sympa- 
thise with  the  Tractarian  writers,  that  Christ  has 
given  the  whole  administration  of  his  grace  to  His 
Church — which,  in  this  sense,  is  called  "His  ful- 
ness;" that  the  Church,  by  Priesthood  and  Sacra- 
ments, gives  to  every  man  the  grace  purchased  by 


60  APPENDIX. 

Christ,  as  each  has  need  ;  that  to  this  end,  when  the 
Church  was  established,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
all  the  fulness  of  Christ,  all  his  grace  for  his  people 
was  invested  in  that  Church,  as  a  corporate  spiritual 
institution,  to  hold  that  sacred  property  and  use  it  as 
Christ's  steward ;  consequently  that  when  a  sinner 
is  said  to  come  to  Christ,  the  meaning  is  that  he 
comes  to  Christ's  Church,  as  his  representative  and 
agent.  He  does  not  touch  Christ  by  faith;  but  only 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  the  visible  signs  of  the 
Church's  ordinances.  He  is  made  a  living  stone,  not 
by  being  brought  directly  to  that  great  living  corner- 
stone which  is  (i  lain  in  Zion  ;"  but  to  a  building 
erected  on  that  stone  which  itself  has  all  its  life  and 
represents  it ;  and  from  which,  life  is  received  by 
every  new  addition ;  so  that  the  passage  of  St.  Peter, 
"  To  whom  coming  as  unto  a  living  stone,  ye  also  as 
lively  stones  are  built  up"  &c.  does  not  mean  coming 
unto  Christ,  except  as  it  may  be  considered  to  be  a 
coming  unto  Christ,  when  we  come  unto  those  who 
having  come  to  him  before  us,  and  have  been  already 
built  up  in  him. 

Now  this  is  an  awful  perversion  of  the  Gospel, 
and  denial  of  the  most  precious  privileges  of  the  be- 
liever. It  is  one  of  the  grand  fictions  of  Rome, 
which  lies  at  the  base  of  her  Anti-Christian  system. 
It  is  nothing  less  than  taking  the  sinner  to  man, 
instead  of  God.  It  is  the  precious  birth-right  of  the 
believer,  in  his  secret  exercises  of  communion,  by 
faith,  with  God,  to  cease  from  man,  to  look  above  ordi- 


APPENDIX.  61 

nances,  to  see,  without  any  intervening  cloud,  or 
medium,  the  Lamb  of  God ;  to  come  as  directly  to 
him  as  if  there  were  not  a  sacrament,  or  ordinance, 
or  ministry,  on  earth,  and  be  built  up  in  him  as  im- 
mediately as  if  not  a  soul  had  ever  been  built  up  in 
him  before.  In  other  words,  precisely  as  the  first 
souls  that  were  united  by  faith  to  that  living  corner- 
stone, could  have  had  none  between  them  and  Christ, 
no  row  of  intervening  stones ;  so  all  believers,  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  are  united  just  as  immediately. 
The  mere  incidental  difference  that  some  are  con- 
verted in  one  century,  some  in  a  later,  makes  no 
difference  as  to  the  privileges  of  any.  All  are  alike 
built  immediately  on  Christ.  All  are  equally  in  the 
head.  All  have  the  same  directness  of  communion 
with  him.     All  receive  alike  out  of  his  fulness. 

This  is  not  only  illustrated,  but  typically  proved 
by  the  history  of  the  Manna  in  the  wilderness.  The 
Church  of  God  in  the  wilderness  was  sustained,  as 
to  bodily  food,  exclusively  by  the  Manna  which  came 
down  from  heaven.  Our  Lord,  in  the  sixth  chapter 
of  St.  John,  expressly  points  to  that  Manna  as  a 
type  of  Himself.  As  that  supplied  the  bodily  wants 
of  the  people  Israel ;  so  is  he  the  bread  of  life  for 
the  spiritual  wants  of  God's  true  Israel.  But  was 
the  Manna  laid  up  in  some  depot  of  the  Church 
in  the  wilderness  ;  was  it  invested  in  the  hands 
of  some  stewards,  at  the  beginning  of  the  jour- 
ney, to  be  kept  and  dealt  out  during  all  the  forty 
years;   was  the  prerogative  of  its  administration 

6 


62  APPENDIX. 

given  to  the  Priesthood,  and  were  the  people  to  go 
to  them,  day  by  day,  to  get  as  much  as  they  needed  1 
No  such  thing  !  The  Priesthood  had  nothing  to  do 
with  its  distribution.  It  was  a  matter  of  direct,  daily 
communication  between  the  Head  of  that  Church 
and  every  individual  member.  There  was  no  supply 
laid  up  in  certain  hands.  When  this  was  attempted, 
the  bread  corrupted  ,•  just  as  when  the  Anti-Christian 
doctrine,  against  which  I  am  arguing,  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Church,  and  the  attempt  was  made  to 
interfere  with  the  direct,  daily  intercourse  between 
Christ  and  each  of  his  people,  every  thing  in  the 
Church  corrupted.  The  simple  mode  by  which  each 
man  of  Israel  was  fed,  was  his  going  out,  day  by 
day,  whether  he  was  Priest,  Levite,  or  any  thing 
else,  Aaron  or  Moses,  or  the  least  of  the  host,  and 
gathering/or  himself.  There  was  no  vicarious  work 
on  the  part  of  the  Church,  or  any  representative 
body.  It  wras  an  act  of  faith  for  each  man  daily 
to  exercise.  The  supply  was  all  held  in  the  hands 
of  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church,  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  No  stewardship  was  appointed.  It 
was  He  who  gave  to  every  man ;  and  he  gave  only 
for  the  day,  lest  the  sense  of  constant,  individual, 
entire  dependence  on  Him  should  be  impaired. 

So  are  we  taught  by  Him,  every  day,  to  ask  our 
Manna — "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread."  The 
Church  is  still  on  its  pilgrimage.  The  people  of 
God  live  by  faith  ;  their  bread  comes  down  from  hea- 
ven.    Each  soul  looks  for  it  directly  unto  Christ, 


APPENDIX.  63 

who  himself  is  that  bread.  He  only  knows  what 
each  wants.  He  only  can  give  as  each  needs. 
Prayer  of  faith  is  the  hand  by  which  each  receives 
out  of  his  fulness.  He  has  never  given  his  glory, 
in  this  respect,  to  another.  Corruption  must  enter 
into  the  Church  that  attempts  to  interfere  with  the 
immediate,  continual  application  of  his  people,  for  all 
grace,  to  their  one,  only,  and  glorious  Head  and  Life. 

I  have  not  set  out  to  write  an  essay  on  this  part 
of  our  subject.  If  the  views  exhibited  in  the  sermon 
concerning  the  invisible  Church,  be  true,  the  theory 
of  the  visible  Church  being  the  depository  of  grace, 
&c,  cannot  stand.  I  will  allude  to  one  passage 
which  is  often  used,  as  if  there  could  be  no  doubt 
of  its  sustaining  that  theory. 

I  refer  to  the  23d  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians,  and  23d  verse. 

St.  Paul  speaking  of  the  Church,  says,  "  which  is 
his  (Christ's)  body,  the  fulness  (rtta^wfia)  of  him  that 
filleth  all  in  a//." 

This  passage  is  often  treated,  as  if  the  Church 
were  Christ's  fulness,  in  the  sense  of  being,  corpo- 
rately,  in  possession  of  all  the  grace  which  Christ 
has  purchased  for  his  people,  independently  of  his 
indwelling,  by  his  Spirit,  in  the  heart  of  each.  It 
will  be  seen,  from  the  following  references,  that 
such  is  in  no  sense  the  understanding  of  the  passage 
by  our  old  divines,  and  others.  It  will  appear  that 
the  passage  is  understood  as  meaning  that  the 
Church  is  Christ's  fulness,  simply  as  the  completion 


64  APPENDIX. 

of  Him,  in  his  officers  head  of  the  mystical  body — his 
Church ;  j  ust  as  a  king  is  relatively  incomplete  with- 
out a  kingdom,  and  thus  a  kingdom  is  the  fulness, 
or  complimentum,  of  a  king. 

Hooker  says,  "  It  pleaseth  Christ,  in  mercy,  to 
account  himself  incomplete  and  maimed  without  us. 
(Note  of  Hooker's  to  this.  Eph.  i.  23,  Ecclesia 
complimentum  ejus  qui  implet  omnia  in   omnibus.) 

"  But  most  assured  we  are,  that  we  all  receive  of 
his  fulness,  because  he  is  in  us  as  a  moving  and  work- 
ing cause. — Hooker  6  v.  §  56,  near  end. 

Archbishop  Usher  comments  on  the  same  passage 
as  follows  :  "  As  it  hath  pleased  the  Father,  that  in 
Him  should  all  fulness  dwell ;  so  the  Son  is  pleased 
not  to  hold  it  any  disparagement,  that  his  body,  the 
Church,  should  be  accounted  the  fulness  of  Him  that 
Jilleth  all  in  all',  that,  howsoever,  in  himself,  he  is 
most  absolutely,  and  perfectly,  complete,  yet  in  his 
Church,  so  nearly  conjoined  with  him,  that  hehold- 
eth  not  himself  full  without  it;  but  as  long  as  any 
one  member  remaineth  ungathered  and  unknit  into 
this  mystical  body  of  his,  he  accounteth,  in  the 
meantime,  somewhat  to  be  deficient  in  himself." — 
Sermon  before  the  King — in  Usher's  Jlnswer  to  a 
Jesuit,  p.  694. 

Beveridge  gives  the  same.  "  The  Church  is  so 
Christ's  body  that  it  is  his  rfK^ioua,  His  Fulness, 
that  whereby  he  is  full  and  complete,  which  other- 
wise he  would  not  be,  no  more  than  a  head  is  with- 
out a  body.  *  *  And  therefore  the  Epistle  here  truly 


APPENDIX.  65 

calls  the  Church  his  fulness  or  complement.  Beve- 
ridge^s  Sermons,  No.  32,  vol.  1,  p.  385. 

McKnight  gives  the  same  view,  on  Eph.  i.  23, 
and  on  Rom.  xi.  12 — "  If  the  diminishing  of  them  be 
the  riches  of  the  Gentiles  how  much  more  their  fulness, 
"  rtto^w^a" — see  the  same  word  in  3Ialthew  ix.  16. 

The  same  view  is  given  in  Poole's  Synopsis,  and 
in  Schleusner's  Lexicon.     Art.  rt^w^a. 

There  is  a  very  important  and  solemn  sense,  in 
which  each  Christian  may  be  "filled  with  all  the  ful- 
ness of  God."  St.  Paul  prays  for  the  Ephesian 
Christians — Eph.  iii.  19 — that  they  "  may  be  filed 
with  all  the  fulness  of  God" — not  "  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead"  as  Christ  was  and  is  ;  but  "  the  fulness 
of  God  ;"  the  fulness  of  that  sanctifying  grace  which 
God  has  promised  to  his  people,  as  the  purchase 
of  Christ  in  their  behalf.  But  in  this  passage 
it  is  the  individual  believer,  and  not  any  corporate 
body  that  is  prayed  for.  The  context  shows  that,  as 
St.  Paul  prays  for  the  Ephesians,  individually,  that 
Christ  may  dwell  in  their  hearts,  by  faith  ,-  so  he  prays 
for  the  same  individuals  that  they  may  be  severally 
filled  with  the  fulness  of  God.  In  one  sense  indeed, 
the  Church  may  be  spoken  of  in  the  same  way,  but 
only  as  it  is  the  aggregate  of  all  in  whose  hearts,  as 
individual  believers,  Christ  dwells  by  faith. 

The  passages  below  from  those  great  divines  of  the 
17th  century,  Dr.  Jackson  and  Archbishop  Usher, 
will  show  how  giants  in  divinity  of  those  days  were 
wont  to  speak  of  union  to  Christ. 

6* 


66  APPENDIX. 

"  All  that  believe,  as  Peter  and  the  other  Apostles 
did,  or  shall  so  believe,  unto  the  world's  end,  are 
immediately  laid  on  the  same  foundation  stone,  not 
one  upon  another,  their  union  or  annexation  unto 
Christ  is  as  immediate  as  Peters  was,  and  is  or  shall 
be  as  indissoluble  as  his  was  to  Christ,  albeit,  their 
growth  be  not  so  great,  nor  for  quality  so  glorious. 
The  best  description  of  this  edifice,  thus  immediately 
erected  upon  the  same  stone,  would  be  that  of  the 
poet,  Crescit  crescentibus  illis.  As  the  number  of  liv- 
ing stones  which  are  laid  upon  the  foundation  stone 
increases,  so  the  foundation  or  corner  stone,  which 
God  did  promise  to  lay  in  Zion,  doth  increase.  As 
every  particular  living  stone  increaseth  or  groweth 
from  a  stone  into  a  pillar  of  the  house  of  God,  unto 
a  temple  of  God  ;  so  this  foundation  stone,  that  is, 
Christ  as  man,  still  groweth,  still  increaseth,  not  in 
himself,  but  in  them.  For  they  grow  by  his  growth 
in  them,  or  by  diffusion  of  life  from  him  into  them. — 
Jackson's  Works,  vol.  III.  b.  II.  c.  IV.  §  22. 

"Our  Apostle's  words  are  express  that  all  the 
building  is  fitly  framed  together  in  Christ,  and  so 
framed  together  groweth  up  unto  an  holy  temple 
in  the  Lord.  He  saith  not,  we  are  builded  one  upon 
another,  but  builded  together  in  him  for  an  habita- 
tion of  God  through  the  Spirit.  The  Spirit  by  which 
we  are  builded  together  in  Christ,  or  through  which 
we  become  the  habitation  of  God,  is  not  communi- 
cated and  propagated  unto  us  as  from  intermediate 
foundations  or  roots.  We  and  all  true  believers  receive 


APPENDIX.  67 

the  influence  of  the  Spirit  as  immediately  from  Christ, 
or  from  God  the  Father  and  the  Son,  in  the  same 
manner  as  St.  Peter  did. — Ibid,  §  6. 

"  Christ  is  not  the  foundation  only,  but  the  temple 
of  God.  *  *  *  That  we  then  become  living  stones 
in  this  edifice,  it  is  from  our  immediate  union  with 
this  chief  corner-stone ;  being  united  to  him  he  is 
fashioned  in  us  ;  we  become  living  stones,  growing 
stones,  &c." — Ibid,  §  9. 

"  The  mystery  of  our  union  to  Christ,  (says  Arch- 
bishop Usher)  consisteth  mainly  in  this ;  that  the 
self  same  Spirit  which  is  in  him,  as  in  the  head,  is 
so  derived  from  him  into  every  one  of  his  true 
members,  that  thereby  they  are  animated  and  quick- 
ened to  a  spiritual  life.  *  *  * 

"  The  formal  reason  of  the  union  of  the  membeis 
of  our  bodies  consisteth  not  in  the  continuity  of  the 
parts,  though  that  also  be  requisite  to  the  unity  of 
a  natural  body,  but  in  the  animation  thereof  by  one 
and  the  same  spirit.  *  *  And  even  thus  it  is  in 
Christ,  although  in  regard  of  his  corporal  presence, 
the  heaven  must  receive  him  until  the  times  of  the 
restitution  of  all  things ;  yet  he  is  here  with  us 
always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  by  the  pre- 
sence of  his  Spirit. — Sermon  before  House  of  Com- 
mons. 


APPENDIX    B. 

FURTHER  REMARKS    ON   THE    RELATIONS    OF   THE 
VISIBLE     AND    INVISIBLE     CHURCH. 

If  the  reader,  unaccustomed  to  such  subjects  as 
are  treated  in  the  sermon,  would  rightly  appre- 
ciate the  views  therein  given,  he  must  keep 
clear  in  his  mind  the  distinction  between  the  uni- 
versal visible  church,  and  all  particular  ecclesias- 
tical organizations.  The  visible  church,  universal, 
is  not  the  comprehension  of  all  separate  eccle- 
siastical organizations,  such  as  the  particular  con- 
stitutions of  parishes,  dioceses  or  national  churches, 
but  of  all  professing-  christians,  united  in  the  bonds 
of  common  sacraments,  and  the  common  funda- 
mental faith,  into  one  community,  however  scat- 
tered in  place,  however  diversified  in  other  ecclesi- 
astical relations. 

It  may  seem  at  first  sight  that  the  views  of  the 
discourse  are  incompatible  with  the  19th  Article, 
entitled — "  Of  the  Church" — which  is  as  follows: 

"The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation 
of  faithful  men,  in  which  the  pure  Word  of  God 
is  preached,  and  the  sacraments  be  duly  minis- 
tered, according  to  Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those 
things  that  of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same." 

This  is  a  description  of  the  Visible  Church.  At 
first  view  it  seems  to  identify  the  bounds  of  the 


APPENDIX.  69 

visible  church  with  those  of  the  company  of  all 
God's  true,  believing,  obedient  people ;  for  no  one 
acquainted  with  the  language  of  the  writers  of  the 
days  when  the  articles  were  written,  can  doubt  that 
il  a  congregation  of  all  God' 's faithful people ,"  means 
the  community  or  society  of  all  God's  true  people  ; 
in  other  words,  all  who  are  living  "a  life  of  faith 
upon  the  Son  of  God." 

Now,  can  it  be  for  a  moment  supposed  that  our 
Reformers  intended  to  say  that  the  visible,  or  pro- 
fessing church,  embraces  none  but  such  faithful 
people  ?  in  other  words,  that  all  professing  chris- 
tians are  true  christians?  This  were  impossible. 
The  Reformers,  we  all  know,  held  no  such  views ; 
but  loudly  contended  against  all  approach  to  it  in 
the  Church  of  Rome. 

What  then  does  the  article  mean  1  A  little  con- 
sideration will  show  that  it  speaks  to  two  points. 
1st.  What  is  the  Church?  for  it  is  entitled — "Of 
the  Church.''''  2d.  What  is  the  visibility  of  the 
Church,  or  in  what  is  it  visible? 

To  the  first,  it  says,  The  Church  is  "a  congre- 
gation" or,  society,  of  God's  faithful  people,  pre- 
cisely according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  sermon.  To 
the  second,  it  says,  The  Church  is  a  visible  church 
in  this,  viz: — In  it  "the  pure  Word  of  God  is 
preached,  and  the  sacraments  be  duly  ministered 
according  to  Christ's  ordinance,  &c.  In  other 
words,  the  essential  notes  of  the  church,  by  which 
it  is  made  visible,  are  the  administration  of  the 


70  APPENDIX. 

sacraments  in  all  things  essential  to  them,  and 
the  preaching  of  the  pure  word  of  God.  Where- 
ever  these  are,  is  the  visibility  of  the  church : — 
Wherever  there  is,  under  them,  a  community  of 
God's  true  people,  there  the  true  church  not  only  is, 
but  is  visible,  as  far  as  it  can  be,"to  those  who  cannot 
search  the  hearts. 

The  views,  given  in  the  sermon,  of  the  invisible 
church,  are  beautifully  expressed,  not  only  in  the 
communion  office,  where  it  is  called — "  the  blessed 
company  of  all  God's  faithful  people" — but  in  the 
collect  for  Ml  Saints  Day,  as  follows  : — "  Oh,  Al- 
mighty God,  who  hast  knit  together  thine  elect  in  one 
communion  and  fellowship,  in  the  mystical  body  of  thy 
son  Christ,  our  Lord;  Grant  us  grace  so  to  follow  thy 
blessed  saints  in  all  virtuous  and  godly  living,"  $rc. 

This  leads  us  to  some  remarks  on  what  are  ealled 
"  Notes  of  the  Church." 

Precisely  as  visible  sacraments  are  spoken  of,  as 
if  they  were  the  invisible  grace  which  they  signify 
— (see  the  discourse,)  so  the  whole  visibility 
of  the  church  is  spoken  of  as  if  it  constituted  the 
church  which  it  indicates.  Thus  what  are  called 
"  Notes"  of  the  true  Church,  which,  in  protestant 
doctrine,  are  simply  the  profession  of  the  funda- 
mental christian  faith,  in  the  right  use  of  the  christian 
sacraments  and  ministry,  are  often  spoken  of  as  if 
they  were  constituent  elements  of  the  church.  All 
this  language  is  correct,  precisely  in  the  sense  in 
which  it  is  correct  to  speak  of  the  sacramental  re- 


APPENDIX.  71 

ceiving  the  communion,  as  the  communion  of  the  body 
of  Christ  ,•  or  the  sacramental  receiving  of  baptism, 
as  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  or  that  the  sa- 
cramental receiving  of  circumcision  was  the  cir- 
cumcision ;  or  that  the  man  who  has  the  notes  of 
being  a  christian,  in  having  the  profession  of  the 
fundamentals  of  the  faith,  joined  with  the  recep- 
tion of  the  sacraments,  is  thereby  a  real  christian. 
He  has  the  notes,  or  signs,  of  a  christian,  and 
therefore  is  called  a  christian;  but  those  notes  or 
signs  do  not  make  him  a  true  christian,  nor  prove 
him  to  be  such.  They  only  prove  that  he  has  the 
divinely  appointed  visibility  of  a  christian.  Thus, 
as  to  the  notes  of  the  true  church.  They  do  not 
belong  to  the  being  of  the  church  in  the  sight  of 
God;  but  only  to  its  being  in  the  sight  of  man — 
that  is,  to  its  visibility,  its  form.  That  form  may 
be  supposed  all  laid  aside,  and  a  new  mode  of  pro- 
fession put  on,  under  another  dispensation ;  and  yet 
the  church  may  continue  essentially  the  same.  Its 
notes,  or  signs,  indicate  ,•  they  do  not  constitute  its 
being.  They  are  marks,  not  properties.  Thus  the 
whole  divinely  appointed  visibility  of  thechurch  is 
the  one  sign  of  the  church,  indicating,  as  the  light 
upon  the  dwellings  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt, 
amidst  the  deep  surrounding  darkness,  the  existence 
in  this  dark  world,  of  a  church  which  otherwise 
would  be  invisible;  but  it  does  no  more.  It  is  not 
the  church,  any  more  than  that  miraculous  light 
wherewith  God  marked  off  his  people  Israel,  and 


72  APPENDIX. 

made  his  church  visible  in  the  night  of  Egypt,  was 
that  people. 

The  church  has  no  more  right  to  dispense  with 
the  visible  form,  under  which  God  has  appointed  it 
to  be  in  this  world,  than  a  man  has  a  right  to  divest 
himself  of  the  body  which  Gcd  has  given  him  to 
wear.  We  consider  the  body  of  sacraments  and 
ordinances,  by  which  the  true  spiritual  church  is 
made  visible,  to  be  quite  as  necessary  to  the  church 
for  its  office  in  this  world,  as  the  body  of  flesh,  by 
which  the  true  man  is  made  a  visible  man,  is  ne- 
cessary to  his  duty  on  earth.  But  the  question, 
what  constitutes  the  church,  is  as  independent  of 
what  makes  it  the  visible  church,  as  the  question, 
what  is  the  intelligent  man,  is  independent  of  what 
makes  the  body  of  a  man. 

For  ordinary  purposes,  no  harm  may  arise  from 
confounding,  in  common  speech,  the  visibility  of 
the  church  with  the  being  of  the  church,  and  speak- 
ing of  the  one,  as  if  it  were  identical  with  the 
other.  Thus  we  speak  of  man.  The  visible  man, 
his  body,  is  spoken  of  as  the  man.  We  say  the 
man  is  dead,  when  we  mean  only  that  his  body, 
the  visible  form,  or  sign  of  the  man,  is  dead.  The 
man  himself  is  living  still,  but  invisibly.  But 
when  the  great  question  comes — what  is  it  to  be  a 
christian,  to  be  of  the  communion  of  saints — in 
other  words,  what  is  it  to  be  a  member  of  the  holy 
Catholic  Church,  the  body  of  Christ;  what  is  that 
society  to  which  belong  exclusively  the  promises 


APPENDIX.  73: 

of  the  Gospel,  the  life  of  Christ,  and  the  heritage 
of  God  ;  then,  as  we  say  of  every  individual  person 
who  has  been  baptized,  and  is  a  communicant,  that 
he  is  not  a  christian,  except  he  have  received  the 
inward  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  does  feed 
upon  Christ  in  his  heart  by  faith ;  so  we  must  say 
of  all  the  baptized  and  the  communicating,  that 
while  they  all  have  the  visibility  of  the  church, 
none  of  them  have  any  part  in  its  reality,  except 
they  be  joined  by  a  living  faith  to  Christ. 

If  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  in  the 
sense  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  of  Tractarian  di- 
vinity be  true,  namely,  that  baptism  is  invariably 
accompanied  by,  and  efficacious  in  producing,  all  the 
inward  and  spiritual  change  which  is  necessary  to 
the  spiritual  life,  then  every  man  that  is  a  chris- 
tian outwardly,  is  a  christian  also  inwardly — then 
the  rites  of  the  church,  or  its  visible  marks,  are  co-ex- 
tensive with  its  spiritual  being;  then  also  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  church  mystical  or  invisible,  and  the 
church  visible,  is  but  a  fancy  ;  then  all  the  visible 
is  the  spiritual  and  the  true ;  all  are  of  Israel  that 
are  called  Israel;  and  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  as 
it  stands  before  God,  is  essentially  the  Catholic- 
visible  church  as  seen  of  men. 

Such  is  the  doctrine  of  the  papal  system.   Popery 

cannot  abide  the  doctrine  of  an  invisible  church,  as 

exhibited  in  this  discourse,  and  as  we  shall  show  in 

this  appendix,  was  the  teaching  of  the  great  divines 

7 


74  APPENDIX. 

of  the  Church  of  England,  from  the  Reformation 
downward. 

The  effect  of  this  doctrine  upon  the  Romish 
claim  of  infallibility,  will  illustrate  the  cause  of 
Romish  enmity  thereto,  as  well  as  that  of  systems 
of  divinity  more  or  less  approximating  to  the  Ro- 
mish faith.  The  church,  according  to  Rome,  is,  by 
some  representative  or  other,  an  infallible  guide  of 
faith  and  determiner  of  controversy .  This  she  can 
only  be,  if  at  all,  because  to  her  the  promises  of  God 
are  made.  It  becomes  then  a  great  question  for 
Rome  to  settle  what  is  that  church  to  which  are 
given  the  promises  of  God,  and  which  thus  becomes 
"  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth ;"  and  is,  there- 
fore, by  Romish  inference,  the  infallible  indicator  of 
truth.  It  must  be  either  what  protestants  call  the 
invisible  church,  consisting  only  of  those  who  are 
in  the  exercise  of  a  living  faith;  or  it  must  be  what 
protestants  call  the  visible  church,  as  embracing  the 
merely  nominal  as  well  as  the  true  people  of  God. 
If  the  former  be  exclusively  the  church  which  pos- 
sesses the  promises,  then  because,  while  the  per- 
sons of  the  members  of  that  church  are  visible, 
their  distinctive  character,  as  true  Israelites,  is  invi- 
sible, Romanists  can  never  see  their  guide;  the 
oracle  is  of  no  use,  since  its  whereabouts  is  not 
known;  and  so  infallibility,  if  it  exist,  is  of  no 
tangible  use.  The  necessity  of  escaping  this  con- 
sequence, by  denying  the  premises,  was  perfectly 
understood  by  Cardinal    Bellarmine.       Therefore 


APPENDIX.  75^ 

he  said  :  "  It  is  necessary  it  should  be  infallibly 
certain  to  us,  which  assembly  of  men  is  the  Church, 
For  since  the  Scriptures,  traditions,  and  plainly  all 
doctrines,  depend  on  the  testimony  of  the  church; 
unless  it  be  most  sure  which  is  the  true  church,  all 
things  will  be  wholly  uncertain.  But  it  cannot 
appear  to  us  which  is  the  true  church,  if  internal 
faith  be  required  of  every  member  or  part  of  the 
church.''''* 

Here  is  precisely  the  point.  If  none  can  be  a 
member  of  that  mystical  body  to  which  pertain  the 
promises,  unless  he  have  internal  faith — that  is, 
living  faith — the  infallibility  of  the  church,  as  a 
determiner  of  controversy,  perishes.  Hence,  of 
course  Rome  must  deny  that  necessity,  and  main- 
tain that  those  who  have  not  living  faith,  are  not 
only  professedly,  but  really,  members  of  the  true 
church,  and  therefore  sharers  in  the  promises. — 
Hence,  in  her  use,  the  expressions,  mystical  body 
of  Christ,  temple  of  God,  communion  of  saints, 
holy  Catholic  Church,  visible  church,  are  precisely 
of  the  same  application.  Most  of  the  later  Romanist 
writers  "  take  all  those  glorious  titles  or  promises 
made  to  the  church  in  its  most  ample  or  exquisite 
signification,  to  be  exactly  and  entirely  fulfilled  of 
the  visible  church  throughout  all  ages.  The  visible 
church,  in  their  language,  is  a  society  or  body  ec- 

*  Lib.  iii.  de  Eccl.  Milit.  cap.  10  sect.  Ad  hoc  ne- 
cesse  est,  &c;  quoted  by  Bp.  Taylor. 


76  APPENDIX. 

clesiastic,  notoriously  known  by  the  site  or  the  place 
of  its  residence,  or  by  their  dignity,  order  and 
offices,  which  are  the  perpetual  governors  of  it."  In 
support  of  their  doctrine,  that  this  visible  church  is 
the  true,  universal,  holy  church,  "never  did  the  Jew 
doat  half  so  much  on  external  circumcision  and  legal 
sacrifices,  or  the  canonical  priesthood,  as  the  mo- 
dern Romanist  doth  on  the  sacraments  of  the  gospel, 
and  on  his  imaginary  priesthood,  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedeck,  or  other  like  notes  or  sensible  cogni- 
zances of  the  visible  church."*  Cardinal  Bellar- 
mine  makes  an  argument  against  Calvin's  view  of 
the  invisible  church,  "  which  being  drawn  into 
form,  (says  Dr.  Jackson,)  stands  thus  :  "  The  word 
{church)  in  Scripture  doth  always  import  a  visible 
company  of  men ;  therefore  it  doth  not  belong  to  an 
invisible  congregation"  The  argument,  (proceeds 
Jackson,)  is  no  better  than  this  :  The  holy  ointment 
did  bedew  or  besprinkle  Jar  on' s  garments ;  ergo,  it 
was  not  poured  upon  his  head,  or  it  did  not  mollify 
or  supple  some  other  parts  of  his  body;  whereas,  the 
truth  is,  unless  the  ointment  had  first  been  plenti- 
fully poured  upon  his  head,  it  could  not  have  run 
down  his  neck  unto  the  skirts  of  his  vesture.  An- 
swerable to  this  representation,  we  say  that  all  the 
glorious  prerogatives,  titles  or  promises,  annexed 
to  the  church  in  Scriptures,  are  in  the  first  place, 

f  *  Dr.  Jackson's  Treatise  on  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  (Goode's  ed.,  Lond.,)  pp.  68,  34,98. 


APPENDIX.  77 

and  principally  meant,  of  Chist's  live  mystical 
body.  But  being  in  abundant  measure  bestowed 
on  it,  they  descend  by  analogy  or  participation, 
unto  all  and  every  one  that  hath  put  on  Christ  by 
profession,  without  respect  of  person,  place  or 
dignity.  All  the  difference  in  the  measure  of  their 
participation  or  manner  of  their  attribution,  ariseth 
from  the  divers  degrees  of  similitudes  or  proportion 
which  they  hold  with  the  actual  live-members  of 
Christ's  mystical  body  in  matter  of  faith  or  conver- 
sation. Such  as  have  the  true  model  or  draft  of 
that  Catholic  faith,  without  which  no  man  can  be 
saved,  imprinted  on  their  understandings,  albeit  not 
solidly  engrossed  or  transmitted  into  their  hearts 
and  affections,  are  to  be  reputed  by  us,  (who  under- 
stand their  external  profession  better  than  their  in- 
ward disposition,)  true  Catholics — true  members  of 
Christ's  body  and  heirs  of  promise;  although  in 
very  deed,  and  in  His  sight  that  knows  the  secrets 
of  men's  hearts,  many  of  them  be  members  of 
Christ's  body  only  in  such  sense  as  a  human  body 
shaped  or  organized,  but  not  yet  quickened  with  the 
spirit  of  life,  is  termed  a  man. 

"  The  conclusion,  touching  this  point,  which 
Bellarmine  and  his  followers  are  bound  to  prove,  is 
this :  that  under  the  name  and  titles  of  that  church 
whereunto  the  assistance  of  God's  spirit  for  its 
direction  or  other  like  prerogatives,  are,  by  God's 
word,   assured,   the    visible  church,  taken  in  that 


78  APPENDIX. 

sense  in  which  they  always  take  it,  is  either  literally 
meant,  or  necessarily  included."* 

Until  the  Council  of  Trent  constructed  the  pre- 
sent fixed  creed  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  out  of 
what  before  were,  in  a  great  degree,  floating, 
unfixed  opinions,  more  or  less  prevalent  among  her 
writers,  there  were  not  wanting  those  who  wrote 
with  sufficient  clearness  in  support  of  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  church  invisible  and  visible,  as 
exhibited  in  this  discourse.  It  was  not  until  some- 
time after  the  Council  that  such  writers  quite 
ceased.  Jackson  says:  "Until  Bellarmine,  Valentia, 
Stapleton,  and  some  others,  did  trouble  the  stream 
of  God's  word,"  the  doctrine  here  shown  "was 
clearly  represented  to  the  adversaries  of  our  church." 
Bishop  Taylor,  in  his  Dissuasive  from  Popery, 
quotes  several  Romish  doctors,  as  Aquinas,  Petrus 
a  Soto,  Melchior  Canus,  &c,  as  holding  that 
wicked  men  are  not  true  members  of  the  church, 
but  only  equivocally.  Mali  quidem  sunt  in  ecclesia, 
sed  non  de  ecclesia ;  quia  mali  non  sunt  de  regno 
Dei,  sed  de  regno  diaboli."  Bellarmine  confesses 
that  such  is  the  declaration  of  those  writers,  but 
tries  to  evade  it  by  saying  that  the  wicked  are  not 
in  the  church  in  the  same  sense  as  others,  while  he 
contends  that  they  nevertheless  do  truly  constitute  a 
true  part  of  the  true  church. 

Nothing  can  be  more  satisfactory  to  a  protestant, 

*  Jackson  lb.  pp.  32,  33,  34. 


APPENDIX.  79 

on  this  head,  than  the  language  of  the  Provincial 
Council  of  Colon  in  its  Enchiridion  of  Christian 
Institutions,  where  it  speaks  of  the  Article  of  the 
Creed  in  the  Catholic  Church,  after  dividing  the 
church  into  triumphant  and  militant.  Of  the  latter, 
it  says  :  "The  church  militant  is  to  be  regarded 
under  two  aspects;  first,  more  strictly,  as  con- 
sisting of  those  who  are  so  in  the  Church  of 
God,  that  they  are  themselves  the  Church  of  God, 
or  the  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  built  of 
holy  stones.  The  Church  in  this  sense  is  known  only 
to  God.  But  such  is  not  the  sense  in  which  the 
word  Church  is  to  be  taken,  either  where  Christ 
gives  command  concerning  hearing  the  church,  or 
the  fathers,  after  the  Apostles  speak  of  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Church."* 

But  such  is  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  as  the  Council  of  Trent  has  decreed  it,  and 
as  its  expositor  and  vindicator,  Bellarmine,  exhibits 
it.  That  the  visible  Church,  with  all  its  mixture,  is 
the  one  holy,  Catholic,  living,  Church  of  God,  to 
which  belong  all  the  promises  which  belong  to 
Christ's  living,  mystical  body;  and  that  every  bap- 
tized person  who  is  neither  excommunicate,  a  here- 
tic, infidel,  or  schismatic,  is  a  true  member  of  that 
Church,  is  a  doctrine  essentially  involved  in  her 
whole  system.  By  Baptismal  Regeneration,  and 
Justification,  as  held  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  the 

*  Enchirid.  Christian.  Institut.  fol.  65,  quoted  by 
Jackson. 


80  APPENDIX. 

baptism  of  water  and  the  inward  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  are  so  identified,  that  all  who  have 
received  the  former  are  declared  to  have  received, 
ex  opere  operato,  the  latter,  and  to  have  thus  become 
spiritually  the  children  of  God  by  adoption  and 
grace.  Then,  for  that  part  of  the  baptized  who  have 
fallen  into  mortal  sin,  and  thus  lost  their  baptismal 
purity,  and  who  have  not  taken  advantage  of  the 
sacrament  of  penance  to  reinstate  them  in  the  favour 
of  God,  and  are  therefore  continuing  under  deadly 
sin,  their  faith  dead,  she  kindly  pronounces  that  they 
have  true  faith  and  are  true  Christians  still ;  she 
pronounces  anathema  on  any  who  shall  say  "  that 
when  grace  is  lost  by  sin,  faith  is  lost  together  with 
it ;  or  that  the  faith  which  remains  is  not  true  faith, 
though  it  be  not  living;  or  that  a  man  is  not  a  chris- 
tian who  has  faith  without  love."* 

The  Catechism  of  the  Council  of  Trent  declares 
accordingly,  as  the  authentic  interpreter  of  the  coun- 
cil, that  "  however  wicked  and  flagitious  men  may  be, 
it  is  certain  that  unless  they  be  infidels,  heretics  and 
schismatics,  or  excommunicate,"  (which  would  cut 
them  off  from  the  visible  church)  "  they  still  belong 
to  the  Church."-)-  This  expansive  pale  takes  into 
the  true  membership  of  the  true  living  Church  of 
true  Christians,  the  very  worst  as  well  as  the  best, 
if  only  they  be  neither  heretics,  schismatics,  infidels 

*  Council  of  Trent,  Can.  XXVIII.  Sess.  VI. 
f  Catechism,  pp.  94,  95 Bait.  Ed.  1833. 


APPENDIX.  81 

or  excommunicate.  Thus  is  obtained  a  visible  body 
for  the  deposite  of  infallibility,  as  well  as  of  all  the 
other  gifts  and  graces  of  God's  true  Church; — this 
same  terribly  permixta  ecclesia,  which  we  call  the 
visible  Church,  and  which  the  Scriptures  liken  to 
a  great  net  which  catches  the  good  and  the  bad. 
All  now  that  remains  for  the  Church  of  Rome  to 
do  is  to  settle  the  representation  of  this  Church,  so 
as  to  fix  the  definite,  accessible  seat  of  the  oracle, 
and  at  what  points  the  grace  given  to  the  whole  body 
can  be  drawn  out  by  the  individual  applicant.  The 
latter  she  readily  arranges  between  the  Sacraments 
and  the  Priesthood,  multiplying  the  Sacraments  for 
the  sake  of  increasing  the  prerogatives  of  the  Priest- 
hood. The  former  is  yet  vexata  qusestio,  between 
General  Councils  as  representatives  of  the  Church, 
and  the  Pope  as  the  Vicar  of  Christ ;  and  both  united 
as  the  combined  representation  of  the  Head  and  the 
members.  The  settlement  of  that  question  is  not 
necessary  to  the  practical  working  of  the  system. 
General  Councils  are  not  likely  soon  again  to  appear 
for  their  claim. — Meanwhile  the  Pope  is  the  eccksia 
docens,  the  practically  conceded  depository  of  infalli- 
bility. He  is  holder  of  the  keys,  and  the  ultimate 
controller  of  the  several  agencies,  by  which  the  grace 
committed  to  the  Church  is  dispensed  to  the  several 
members  of  the  whole  body,  whether  on  earth  or  in 
purgatorial  pains.  Take  away  from  beneath  his  feet 
these  two  props  —first,  the  pretence  that  every  bap 


82  APPENDIX. 

tized  person  is  spiritually  and  internally  renewed, 
ex  opere  operato ;  secondly,  that  to  be  a  true  christian 
and  have  true  faith,  and  so  to  be  a  true  member  of 
God's  Church,  does  not  require  that  a  man  should 
have  "  faith  that  worketh  by  love,"  or  be  else  than 
"  most  wicked  or  flagitious ;"  in  other  words,  estab- 
lish the  Scriptural  doctrine  that  the  Church  of  the 
promises,  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,"  the 
communion  of  saints,  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  the 
living,  mystical  body  of  Christ  is  composed  only 
of  those  who  are  "  in  Christ  Jesus"  by  a  living, 
fruitful  faith,  and  the  foundations  of  that  whole  city 
of  abominations  will  become  as  quicksand. 

Hence  the  pains  taken  by  our  old  Anglican  divines, 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  century,  to  make 
plain  the  distinction  between  the  church  visible  and 
invisible,  "  for  lack  of  diligent  observing  of  which 
(says  Hooker)  the  oversights  are  neither  few  nor 
light  that  have  been  committed." 

The  present  writer  has  observed  in  many  ministers 
of  our  Protestant  Church  of  these  United  States, 
a  great  lack  of  the  diligent  observing  of  that  differ- 
ence ;  and  he  thinks  that  the  oversights  which  have 
ensued,  and  do  still  increase,  are  neither  few  nor 
light,  but  so  many  and  weighty  as  to  affect  in  a  very 
important  degree  the  great  interests  of  gospel  truth. 
The  whole  matter  concerning  Regeneration  and  Jus- 
tification, as  connected  with  the  Sacraments,  and  all 
the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  the  early  Fathers, 
and  the  early  Anglican  divines,  would  be   mnch 


APPENDIX.  83 

more  correctly  and  easily  understood,  were  that  dif- 
ference well  seen  and  forcibly  fixed  in  the  mind. 

Peculiar  circumstances  have  tended  so  much  to 
draw  the  minds  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  ministry 
in  this  country,  to  the  study  and  defence  of  those 
visible  institutions  of  the  Church  which  we  believe 
to  be  apostolic  in  origin,  and  important  enough  tojbe 
sustained  by  any  earthly  sacrifice,  that  it  is  appre- 
hended there  are  not  a  few  minds,  otherwise  strongly 
imbued  with  evangelical  truth,  that  have  become  so 
unused  to  the  old  Anglico-Protestant  views  of  the 
Church  as  it  is  invisible  or  mystical,  that  the  undis- 
guised exhibition  of  them  in  this  discourse  will  seem 
almost  new  and  dangerous.  Such  minds,  on  a  little 
reflection,  will  come  to  their  true  bearings.  The 
slightest  effort  to  controvert  these  views  from  Scrip- 
ture, or  in  consistency  with  other  great  truths  of  the 
gospel,  will  convince  them  that  nothing  else  can  be 
true,  and  that  the  whole  doctrine  is  as  well  Anglican 
as  scriptural.  The  tendency  in  the  present  day 
among  many,  in  the  precise  direction  by  which  the 
Romish  Church  arrived  at  its  present  doctrine,  has 
suggested  the  importance  of  giving  those  views  the 
prominence  they  occupy  in  this  discourse.  And 
that  no  reader  of  these  pages  may  be  at  a  loss  to 
know  how  entirely  the  doctrine  they  contain  is 
identical,  in  every  particular,  with  that  which  our 
Hookers,  and  Taylors,  and  Ushers,  &c.  most  ear- 
nestly taught,  a  series  of  extracts  from  such  autho- 


84  APPENDIX. 

rities  is  here  added,  to  which  the  reader's  careful 
attention  is  requested. 

We  have  taken  Cranmer  and  Ridley  for  the  times 
of  the  Reformation — Hooker  for  the  days  immedi- 
ately succeeding — Bishops  Taylor  and  Hall,  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  Drs.  Jackson  and  Perkins  for  the 
trying  times  of  the  early  part  of  the  17th  century — 
and  Dr.  Barrow  for  those  immediately  succeeding. 

In  this  selection  we  have,  as  holding  what  are 
now  called  Calvinistic  views  of  the  doctrines  of 
grace,  Hooker,  and  Hall,  and  Usher,  &c.  On  the 
opposite  side,  we  have  the  golden-mouthed  Bishop 
Taylor  ;  a  little  less  Arminian,  Dr.  Barrow — still 
less,  Dr.  Jackson.  Thus  we  have  representatives  of 
all  classes  of  English  divines,  of  the  ages  above 
mentioned,  in  regard  to  what  is  supposed  so  much 
to  modify  one's  views  of  questions,  like  those  treated 
in  this  discourse.  Nevertheless  it  will  be  seen,  from 
the  extracts  here  subjoined,  that  among  these  great 
writers  there  was  not  the  least  difference  of  opinion 
in  the  points  now  in  view.  That  the  true  Catholic 
Church  is  composed  only  of  the  true  children  and 
people  of  God,  who  are  united  by  a  living  faith  to 
Christ ;  that  none  others  have  any  real  membership 
in  God's  Church,  however  they  may  be  externally 
associated  with  it  in  visible  ordinances ;  that  this 
Church  is  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  and  Commu- 
nion of  Saints ;  having  all  its  being  in  the  union  of 
its  several  members,  by  faith,  immediately  to  Christ; 
that  this  is  the  mystical  body  of  Christ,  as  nothing 


APPENDIX.  85 

else  can  be,  and  invisible,  because  while  its  members 
on  earth  are  personally  visible,  their  distinction  as 
such  members  is  invisible  ;  that  this  and  no  other  is 
the  Church  to  which  all  the  promises  are  given,  as 
the  real  believers  among  the  children  of  Abraham 
were  the  only  Church  to  which  the  promises  then 
made,  belonged;  finally  that  this  Church,  mystical 
and  invisible,  is  "the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth," 
against  which  "the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail," 
to  which  belongs  essentially  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit, 
however  the  bond  of  peace,  in  the  common  use  of 
creeds  and  sacraments  may  be  broken,  the  reader 
will  find  to  be  the  concurrent  testimony  of  those 
unquestionable  witnesses  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  their  respective 
times. 

Archbishop  Cranmer,  on  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

"  I  believe  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ;  that  is  to 
say,  that  ever  there  is  found  some  company  of  men 
or  some  congregation  of  good  people,  which  believe 
the  Gospel  and  are  saved.  *  *  *  For  this  word, 
Church,  signifieth  a  company  of  men  lightened  with 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  which  do  receive  the  gospel, 
&c.  And  this  Christian  Church  is  a  communion  of 
Saints,  that  is  to  say  all  that  be  of  this  communion, 
or  company,  be  holy,  and  be  one  holy  body  under 
Christ,  their  head.  And  this  congregation  receiveth 
of  their  head  and  Lord,  all  spiritual  riches  and  gifts 

8 


86  APPENDIX. 

that  pertain  to  the  sanctification  and  making  holy 
of  the  same  body.  And  these  ghostly  treasures  be 
common  to  the  whole  body,  and  to  every  member  of 
the  same" 

Crammer's  Catechism  of  1548,  Fathers  of  the  Eng.  Ch., 
pp.  235,  6. 

"But  the  holy  Church  is  so  unknown  to  the 
world  that  no  man  can  descrie  it,  but  God  alone, 
who  only  searcheth  the  hearts  of  all  men,  and  know- 
eth  his  true  children  from  others. 

"  This  Church"  (the  invisible)  "  is  the  pillar  of 
truth,  because  it  resteth  in  God's  word ;  *  *  but  as 
for  the  open,  known  Church,"  (the  visible)  "  and 
the  outward  face  thereof,  it  is  not  the  pillar  of  truth, 
otherwise  than  it  is  (as  it  were)  a  register,  or  trea- 
sury, to  keep  the  books  of  God's  holy  will  and 
testament,  and  to  rest  only  thereupon.  *  *  For  if 
the  Church"  (the  visible)  "proceed  further,  to 
make  any  new  articles  of  the  faith,  besides  the 
Scripture  or  contrary  to  the  Scripture,  or  direct  not 
the  form  of  life  according  to  the  same  ;  then  it  is  not 
the  pillar  of  truth,  nor  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  the 
synagogue  of  Satan,  and  the  temple  of  Antichrist.'' 

Crammer's  Answer  to  Dr.  Smith,  Fathers  of  the  English 
Church,  pp.  544,  545. 

Bishop  Ridley. 

"  The  name,  Church,  is  taken  in  Scripture  some- 
times for  the  whole  multitude  of  them  which  profess 


APPENDIX.  87 

the  name  of  Christ,  of  the  which  they  are  also 
named  Christians.  But,  as  St.  Paul  saith  of  the 
Jew,  '  Not  every  one  is  a  Jew  outwardly,  &c.  Neither 
yet  all  that  be  of  Israel  are  counted  of  the  seed.'*  Even 
so,  not  every  one  which  is  a  christian  outwardly,  is 
a  christian  indeed.  For  '  If  any  man  have  not  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  the  same  is  none  of  his.'  Therefore, 
that  Church,  which  is  his  body,  of  which  Christ  is 
the  head,  standeth  only  of  living  stones  and  true 
christians,  not  only  outwardly  in  name  and  title,  but 
inwardly  in  heart  and  in  truth." 

Ridley's  Works,  (Parker  Soc.  Ed.)  p.  126. 

Hooker. 
The  Visible  and  Invisible  Church. 

"  For  lack  of  diligent  observing,  the  difference 
first  between  the  Church  of  God  mystical,  and 
visible,  then  between  the  visible  sound  and  corrupted 
— the  oversights  are  neither  few  nor  light  that  have 
been  committed." 

He  proceeds  to  show  the  difference  between  the 
Church  visible  and  invisible,  as  follows : 

"  The  Church  of  Christ  which  we  properly  term 
his  body  mystical,  can  be  but  one,  neither  can  that 
be  sensibly  discerned  by  any  man,  inasmuch  as  the 
parts  thereof  are  some  in  heaven  already  with  Christ, 
and  the  rest  that  are  on  earth  (albeit  their  natural 
persons  be  visible)  we  do  not  discern  under  this 
property  whereby  they  are  truly  and  infallibly  of 
that  body.     Only  our  minds,  by  intellectual  conceit, 


88  APPENDIX. 

are  able  to  apprehend  that  such  a  real  body  there 
is :  a  body  collective,  because  it  containeth  a  huge 
multitude;  a  body  mystical,  because  the  mystery  of 
their  conjunction  is  removed  altogether  from  sense. 
Whatsoever  we  read  in  Scripture,  concerning  the 
endless  love  and  saving  mercy  which  God  showeth 
towards  his  Church,  the  only  proper  subject  thereof,  is 
this  Church.  *  *  *  They  who  are  of  this  society, 
have  such  marks  and  notes  of  distinction  from  all 
others,  as  are  not  objects  unto  our  sense;  only  unto 
God  who  seeth  their  hearts,  and  understandeth  all 
their  secret  cogitations  ;  unto  him  they  are  clear 
and  manifest." 

Having  thus  defined  the  mystical  or  invisible  soci- 
ety, Hooker  proceeds  to  do  the  same  for  the  visible. 

"  As  those  everlasting  promises  of  love,  mercy  and 
blessedness  belong  to  the  mystical  Church ;  even  so, 
on  the  other  side,  when  we  read  of  any  duty  to  which 
the  Church  of  God  is  bound  unto,  the  Church  whom 
this  doth  concern  is  a  sensible  and  known  company. 
— And  this  visible  Church,  in  like  sort,  is  but  one, 
continued  from  the  first  beginning  of  the  world,  to 
the  last  end.  *  *  *  The  visible  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  one  in  outward  profession  of  those  things 
which  supernaturally  appertain  to  the  very  essence 
of  Christianity,  and  are  necessarily  required  in  every 
particular  Christian  man.  *  *  *  If  by  external  pro- 
fession they  be  christians,  then  they  are  of  the  visible 
Church  of  Christ:  and  Christians,  by  external  pro- 
fession,  they  are  all  whose  mark  of  recognizance  hath 


APPENDIX.  89 

in  it  those  things  which  we  have  mentioned;  (one 
Lord,  one  Faith,  one  Baptism)  yea,  although  they 
be  impious  idolators,  wicked  heretics,  persons  ex- 
communicable.  *  *  *  Such  we  deny  not  to  be  imps 
and  limbs  of  Satan,  even  as  long  as  they  continue 
such.  Is  it  then  possible  that  the  self-same  men 
should  belong  both  to  the  Synagogue  of  Satan,  and 
to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ?  Unto  that  Church 
which  is  his  mystical  body,  not  possible;  because 
that  body  consisteth  of  none  but  only  true  Israelites, 
true  sons  of  Abraham,  true  servants  and  saints  of  God. 
Howbeit,  of  the  visible  Body  and  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  those  may  be,  and  oftentimes  are,  in  respect 
of  the  main  parts  of  their  outward  profession,  who 
in  regard  of  their  inward  disposition  of  mind,  yea, 
of  external  conversation,  yea,  even  of  some  parts  of 
their  very  profession,  are  most  worthily  both  hate- 
ful in  the  sight  of  God  himself,  and  in  the  eyes  of 
the  sounder  parts  of  the  visible  Church  most  execra- 
ble." 

Eccl.  Pol  b.  iii.  §  1. 
The  True  Temple. 
"  The   multitude   of  them  which    truly  believe 
(howsoever  they  be  dispersed  far  and  wide,  each 
from  other)  is  all  one  Body,  whereof  the  Head  is 
Christ;  one  building,  whereof  he  is  corner-stone,  in 
whom   they,  as  the  members  of  the  body,  being 
knit,  and  as  the  stones  of  the  building,  being  cou- 
pled, grow  up  to  a  man  of  perfect  stature,  and  rise 
to  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord.     That  which  linketh 
8* 


90  APPENDIX. 

Christ  to  us  is  his  mere  mercy  and  love  towards 
us.  That  which  tieth  us  to  him,  is  our  faith  in  the 
promised  salvation  revealed  in  the  word  of  truth. 
That  which  uniteth  and  joineth  us  amongst  ourselves, 
in  such  sort  that  we  are  now  as  if  we  had  but  one 
heart  and  one  soul,  is  our  love.  Who  be  inwardly 
in  heart  the  lively  members  of  this  body,  and  the 
polished  stones  of  this  building,  coupled  and  joined 
to  Christ,  as  flesh  of  his  flesh,  and  bones  of  his 
bones,  by  the  mutual  bonds  of  his  unspeakable  love 
towards  them,  and  their  unfeigned  faith  in  him,  thus 
linked  and  fastened  to  each  other,  by  a  spiritual, 
sincere,  and  hearty  affection  of  love,  without  any 
manner  of  simulation  ;  who  be  Jews  within,  and 
what  their  names  be  ;  none  can  tell,  save  he  whose 
eyes  do  behold  the  secret  dispositions  of  all  men's 
hearts." 

Hooker's  1st  Sermon  on  St.  Jude. 

William  Perkins,  D.  D. 

This  eminent  English  divine  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge, 
died  1602.  His  works  have  been  translated  into  Latin,  Dutch, 
Spanish,  &c.  He  connects  the  age  of  the  Reformers  with  that 
of  the  writers  of  the  17th  century. 

The  Militant  Catholic  Church. 
"  The  number  of  believers,  dispersed  through  the 
whole  world,  who  are  effectually  called,  and  sancti- 
fied and  preserved  unto  life  everlasting  *  *  for 
however  in  the  Catholic  Church  there  be  two  sorts 
of  men  professing  religion,  the  one  of  theui  that  do 
unfeignedly  believe  and  are  sanctified ;  the  other  of 


APPENDIX.  91 

them  who  make  show  of  faith,  but  indeed  believe 
not,  but  remain  in  their  sins  ;  of  the  former  doth  the 
Catholic  Church  consist,  and  not  of  the  latter,  who 
are  no  members  set  into  the  head  of  this  body,  though 
they  may  seem  to  be. 

"  This  confuteth  the  Romish  Church,  who  teach  and 
hold  that  a  reprobate  may  be  a  member  of  this  Church. 

"  This  Catholic  Church  is  invisible,  and  cannot 
by  the  eye  of  flesh  be  discerned  *  *  for  who  can 
infallibly  determine  the  things  that  are  within  a 
man  1  which  again  overthroweth  that  Romish  doc- 
trine which  teacheth  that  the  Catholic  Church  is 
visible  and  apparent  upon  earth.  Yet  some  parts 
are  visible,  as  in  the  right  use  of  words  and  sacra- 
ments appeareth. 

"  This  Catholic  Church  cannot  utterly  perish  and 
be  dissolved.  All  other  congregations  and  particu- 
lar Churches  being  mixed  may  fail,  yet  this  cannot 
be  overcome." 

Works,  Vol.  III.  p.  482. 

"  To  this  assembly  and  no  other  belong  all  the 
promises  of  this  life  and  the  life  to  come.  It  is  the 
ground  and  pillar  of  truth  ,•  that  is  the  doctrine  of 
true  religion  is  always  safely  kept  and  maintained 
in  it. 

"  In  visible  Churches  are  two  sorts  of  men  ;  just 
men  and  hypocrites,  who  although  they  be  within 
the  Church,  yet  the  Church  is  not  so  called  of  them," 
(i.  e.  is  not  called  the  Church  on  account  of  them) 


92  APPENDIX. 

"  but  in  regard  of  them  only  who  are  truly  joined 
unto  Christ. 

"  Adversaries  hereof  are  Papists,  who  frame  not 
the  Church  by  these  true  properties,  but  by  other 
deceitful  marks,  as  succession,  multitude,  antiquity, 
consent." 

Works,  Vol.  III.  p.  504. 

Bishop   Hall. 
The  Visible  and  Invisible  Church. 

"The  word  Church  is  not  more  common  than 
equivocal :  whether  ye  consider  it  as  the  aggrega- 
tion of  the  outward,  visible,  particular  Churches  of 
Christian  professors ;  or  as  the  inward,  secret,  uni- 
versal company  of  the  Elect ;  it  is  still  one. 

"  To  begin  with  the  former.  What  Church  hath 
one  Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  the  righteous,  one  Faith  in 
that  Lord,  one  Baptism  with  that  Faith,  it  is  the  one 
Dove  of  Christ  ;  to  speak  more  short,  one  Faith 
abridges  all.  But  what  is  that  one  Faith  ?  What 
but  the  main  fundamental  doctrine  of  religion  neces- 
sary to  be  known,  to  be  believed  unto  salvation.  It 
is  a  golden  and  useful  distinction  that  we  must  take 
with  us,  betwixt  Christian  Articles  and  Theological 
Conclusions.  Christian  Articles  are  the  principles  of 
religion  necessary  to  a  believer;  Theological  Con- 
clusions are  school-points  fit  for  the  discourse  of  a 
divine.  Those  Articles  are  few  and  essential,  these 
conclusions  are  many  and  unimportant  (upon  neces- 
sity) to  salvation  either  way. 


APPENDIX.  93 

"But  if  from  particular  visible  Churches  you  shall 
turn  your  eyes  to  the  true  inward,  universal  company  of 
God's  elect  and  secret  ones,-  there  shall  you  see  more 
perfectly  the  one  Dove  ;  for  what  the  other  is  in  profes- 
sion, this  is  in  truth  ;  that  one  Baptism  is  here  the 
true  Laver  of  Regeneration  ,•  that  one  Faith  is  a  saving 
reposal  upon  Christ;  that  one  Lord  is  the  Saviour 
of  his  body.  No  natural  body  is  more  one  than  this 
mystical ;  one  head  rules  it ;  one  spirit  animates  it ; 
one  set  of  joints  moves  it;  one  food  nourishes  it, 
one  robe  covers  it.  So  it  is  one  in  itself,  so  one 
with  Christ,  as  Christ  is  one  with  the  Father : 
"  That  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one  ,•  /  in 
them  and  them  in  me." — John  xvii.  22. 

Bp.  Hall's  Sermon  on  the  Beauty  and  Unity  of  the  Church. 

The  Reformed  Churches  of  the  continent,  because 
holding  the  fundamental  faith  of  the  gospel,  though 
non-episcopal  in  order,  Bishop  Hall  calls  the  Church 
of  England's  "  dearest  sisters  abroad" — and  with  re- 
gard to  them  makes  this  passionate  lament — "Oh, 
how  oft,  and  with  what  deep  sighs,  hath  this  most 
flourishing  and  happy  Church  of  England  wished 
that  she  might,  with  some  of  her  own  blood,  have 
purchased  unto  her  dearest  sisters  abroad,  the  reten- 
tion of  this  most  ancient  and  every  way  best  of 
governments." 

Bp.  Hall's  Sermon  on  Noah's  dove. 

The  Unity  of  the  Church. 
"  It  is  not  the  variety  of  by-opinions,  that  can  ex- 


94  APPENDIX. 

elude  them  from  having  their  part  in  that  one  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  their  just  claim  to  the  Communion 
of  Saints.  While  they  hold  the  solid  and  precious 
foundation,  it  is  not  the  hay  or  stubble  (1  Cor.  iii. 
12),  which  they  lay  upon  it,  that  can  set  them  off 
from  God  or  his  Church.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  it 
must  be  granted,  that  they  have  much  to  answer  for 
to  the  God  of  Peace  and  Unity,  who  are  so  much 
addicted  to  their  own  conceits,  and  so  indulgent  to 
their  own  interest,  as  to  raise  and  maintain  new 
doctrines,  and  to  set  up  new  sects  in  the  Church 
of  Christ,  varying  from  the  common  and  received 
truths ;  labouring  to  draw  disciples  after  them,  to 
the  great  distraction  of  souls,  and  scandal  of  Chris- 
tianity. With  which  sort  of  disturbers  I  must  needs 
say  this  age,  into  which  we  are  fallen,  hath  been, 
and  is  above  all  that  have  gone  before  us,  most 
miserably  pestered :  what  good  soul  can  be  other 
than  confounded,  to  hear  of  and  see  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fourscore  new,  and  some  of  them  dan- 
gerous and  blasphemous,  opinions,  broached  and 
defended  in  one,  once  famous  and  unanimous,  Church 
of  Christ?  *  *  * 

"  But,  notwithstanding  all  this  hideous  variety 
of  vain  and  heterodoxal  conceptions,  he,  who  is  the 
Truth  of  God,  and  the  Bridegroom  of  his  Spouse, 
the  Church,  hath  said,  My  dove,  my  undefiled  is 
one  ;  Cant.  vi.  9  :  one,  in  the  main,  essential,  funda- 
mental verities  necessary  to  salvation ;  though  dif- 
fering in  divers  mis-raised  corollaries,  inconsequent 


APPENDIX.  95 

inferences,  unnecessary  additions,  feigned  traditions, 
unwarrantable  practices.  The  body  is  one,  though 
the  garments  differ ;  yea,  rather,  for  most  of  these, 
the  garment  is  one,  but  differs  in  the  dressing; 
handsomely  and  comely  set  out  by  one,  disguised  by 
another.  Neither  is  it,  or  ever  shall  be,  in  the  power 
of  all  the  fiends  of  hell,  the  professed  make-baits  of 
the  world,  to  make  God's  Church  other  than  one  : 
which  were  indeed  utterly  to  extinguish  and  reduce  it 
to  nothing;  for  the  unity  and  entity  of  the  Church 
can  no  more  be  divided  than  itself.  *  *  * 

"  The  whole  church  is  the  spiritual  temple  of  God. 
Every  believer  is  a  living  stone  laid  in  those  sacred 
walls.  *  *  There  is  no  place  for  any  loose  stone 
in  God's  edifice  :  the  whole  Church  is  one  entire 
body.  *  *  In  case  there  happen  to  be  differences  in 
opinion  concerning  points  not  essential,  not  necessary 
to  salvation ;  this  diversity  may  not  breed  any  aliena- 
tion of  affection.  *  *  In  all  the  main  principles  of 
religion,  there  is  an  universal  and  unanimous  consent 
of  all  Christians :  and  these  are  they  that  constitute  a 
Church.  Those  that  agree  in  these,  Christ  is  pleased 
to  admit,  for  matter  of  doctrine,  as  members  of  that 
body  whereof  he  is  the  Head  ;  and  if  they  admit  not 
of  each  other  as  such,  the  fault  is  in  the  uncharita- 
bleness  of  the  refusers,  no  less  than  in  the  error  of 
the  refused.  And  if  any  vain  and  loose  stragglers 
will  needs  sever  themselves,  and  wilfully  choose  to 
go  ways  of  their  own,  let  them  know  that  the  union 
of  Christ's  Church  shall  consist  entire  without  them: 


96  APPENDIX. 

this  great  ocean  will  be  one  collection  of  waters, 
when  these  drops  are  lost  in  the  dust.  In  the  mean 
time,  it  highly  concerns  all  that  wish  well  to  the 
sacred  name  of  Christ,  to  labour  to  keep  the  unity 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace ;  Eph.  iv.  3  :  and 
to  renew  and  continue  the  prayer  of  the  Apostle  for 
all  the  professors  of  Christianity — Now  the  God 
of  patience  and  consolation  grant  you  to  be  like- 
minded  one  towards  another,  according  to  Christ 
Jesus  :  that  ye  may,  with  one  mind  and  one  mouth, 
glorify  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  Rom.  xv.  5,  6. 

Bp.  Halfs  Treatise  of  Christ  Mystical,  c.  vii.  §  2. 

Faith  the  Instrument  of  Union. 
"  As  there  are  two  persons  between  whom  this 
union  is  made,  Christ  and  the  believer ;  so  each  of 
them  concurs  to  the  happy  effecting  of  it :  Christ  by 
His  Spirit  diffused  through  the  hearts  of  all  the 
regenerate,  giving  life  and  activity  to  them  ;  the 
believer  laying  hold  by  faith  upon  Christ ;  so  work- 
ing in  him ;  and  these  do  so  react  upon  each  other 
that  from  their  mutual  operation,  results  this  gracious 
union  whereof  we  treat.  *  *  0  the  grace  of  faith 
justly  represented  to  us  by  St.  Paul,  (Eph.  vi.  16) 
above  all  other  graces  incident  unto  the  soul,  as 
that,  which  if  not  alone,  chiefly  transacts  all  the 
main  affairs  tending  to  salvation.  For  faith  is  the 
quickening  grace;  Gal.  ii.  20 — Rom.  i.  17:  the  di- 
recting grace ;  2  Cor.  v.  7  :  the  protecting  grace ; 
Eph.  vi.  16  :  the  establishing  grace;  Rom.  xi.  20 — 


APPENDIX.  97 

2  Cor.  i.  24  :  the  justifying  grace  ;  Rom.  vi. ;  the 
sanctifying  and  purifying  grace  ;  Acts  xv.  9.  Faith 
is  the  grace  that  assents  to,  apprehends,  applies, 
appropriates  Christ ;  Heb.  xi.  1 ;  and  hereupon  the 
uniting  grace,  and  (which  comprehends  all)  the 
saving  grace" 

Bp.  HalVs  Treatise  of  Christ  Mystical,  c.  vi. 

Bishop  Taylor. 
The  Church  Visible  and  Invisible. 
The  Church  is  a  company  of  men  and  women 
professing  the  saving  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ.  This 
is  the  Church  'in  se?isa  forensi^  and  in  the  sight  of 
men,  but  because  glorious  things  are  spoken  of  the 
city  of  God,  the  professors  of  Christ's  doctrine  are 
but  imperfectly  and  inchoatively  the  Church  of  God  ; 
but  they  who  are  indeed  holy  and  obedient  to  Christ's 
laws  of  faith  and  manners — these  are  truly  and  per- 
fectly '  the  Church:  *  *  These  are  the  Church  of 
God  in  the  eyes  and  heart  of  God.  For  the  Church 
of  God  are  the  body  of  Christ;  but  the  mere  prof es- 
sion  of  Christianity  makes  no  man  a  member  of  Christ 
— nothing  but  a  new  creature,  nothing  but  '  a  faith 
working  by  love ;'  and  keeping  the  commandments 
of  God.  Now  they  that  do  this  are  not  known  to 
be  such  by  men ;  but  they  are  known  only  to  God  ; 
and  therefore  it  is  in  a  true  sense,  'the  invisible 
Church  ,•'  not  that  there  are  two  churches,  or  two 
societies,  in  separation  from  each  other.  *  *  *  No, 
these  two  churches  are  but  one  society:  the  one 

9 


98  APPENDIX. 

is  within  the  other — but  yet  though  the  men  be 
visible,  yet  that  quality  and  excellency  by  which 
they  are  constituted  Christ's  members,  and  distin- 
guished from  mere  professors  and  outsides  of  chris- 
tians, this,  I  say,  is  not  visible.  All  that  really  and 
heartily  serve  Christ  in  abdito,  do  also  profess  to  do 
so  ;  *  *  the  visible  Church  is  ordinarily  and  regu- 
larly part  of  the  visible,  but  yet  that  only  part  that 
is  the  true  one  ,•  and  the  rest,  but  by  denomination  of 
law,  and  in  common  speaking,  are  the  Church — not  in 
mystical  union,  not  in  proper  relation  to  Christ;  they 
are  not  the  House  of  God,  not  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  not  the  members  of  Christ ;  and  no  man  can 
deny  this.  Hypocrites  are  not  Christ's  servants,  and 
therefore  not  Christ's  members,  and  therefore  no  part 
of  the  Church  of  God,  but  improperly  and  equivocally, 
as  a  dead  man  is  a  man,  all  which  is  perfectly  sum- 
med up  in  these  words  of  St.  Augustine,  saying, 
that  "  the  body  of  Christ  is  not  '  bipartitum,1  it  is  not 
a  double  body — '  all  that  are  Christ's  body,  shall 
reign  with  Christ  forever.'  And  therefore  they  who 
are  of  their  father,  the  devil,  are  the  synagogue  of 
Satan,  and  of  such  is  not  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and 
all  this  is  no  more  than  what  St.  Paul  said  :  '  They 
are  not  all  Israel,  who  are  of  Israel,"1  and  '  He  is  not 
a  Jew  that  is  one  outwardly,  but  he  is  a  Jew  that  is  one 
inwardly?  Now  if  any  part  will  agree  to  call  the 
universality  of  professors  by  the  title  of  '  the  Church,'' 
they  may  if  they  will ;  any  word  by  consent  may  sig- 
nify any  thing  }  but  if  by  a  Church  we  mean  that 


APPENDIX.  99 

society  which  is  really  joined  to  Christ,  which  hath 
received  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  heir  of  the  pro- 
mises and  of  the  good  things  of  God,  which  is  the 
body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head  ;  then  the  invisible 
part  of  the  visible  Church,  that  is,  the  true  servants 
of  Christ  only,  are  the  Church  ;  that  is,  to  them  only 
appertain  the  Spirit  and  the  truth,  the  promises  and 
the  graces,  the  privileges  and  advantages  of  the 
gospel ;  to  others,  they  appertain  as  the  promise  of 
pardon  does  ,•  that  is  when  they  have  made  themselves 
capable.  The  faithful  only  and  obedient  are  beloved 
of  God.  Others  may  believe  rightly;  but  so  do  the 
devils,  who  are  no  parts  of  the  church,  but  princes 
'  ecclesia  malignantium?  and  it  will  be  a  strange  pro- 
position which  affirms  any  one  to  be  of  the  church, 
for  no  other  reason  but  such  as  qualifies  the  devil 
to  be  so  too. 

Bp.  Taylor  contends  that  the  Article  in  the  Creed 
— "Holy  Catholic  Church,'1''  and  the  next,  "the  Com- 
munion of  Saints,"  refer  to  the  same  thing,  and  mean 
only  what  before  he  has  defined  as  the  invisible 
Church,  viz.  the  society  of  the  true  followers  of 
Christ.  "  If  it  be  asked  (he  says)  what  is  the 
Catholic  Church  ? — the  Apostles'  Creed  defines  it ; 
it  is  '  communio  sanctorum'' — '  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church,'  that  is,  the  Communion  of  Saints,' 
the  conjunction  of  all  them  who  heartily  serve  God 
through  Jesus  Christ ;  the  one  indeed  is  exegetical 
of  the  other,  as  that  which  is  plainer  is  explicative 
of  that  which  is  less  plain  ',  but  else  they  are  but 


100  APPENDIX. 

the  same  thing  :  which  appears  also  in  this,  that  in 
some  creeds  the  latter  words  are  left  out,  and  par- 
ticularly in  the  Constantinopolitan,  as  being  under- 
stood to  be  in  effect,  but  another  expression  of  the 
same  article.  *  *  St.  Augustine  spends  two  chapters 
in  affirming  that  only  they  who  serve  God  faithfully 
are  the  Church  of  God.  For  this  is  in  the  good  and 
faithful,  and  the  holy  servants  of  God,  scattered 
every  where,  and  combined  by  a  spiritual  union  in 
the  same  communion  of  sacraments,  whether  they 
know  one  another  by  face  or  no.  Others,  it  is  cer- 
tain, are  so  said  to  be  in  the  house  of  God,  that  they 
do  not  pertain  to  the  structure  of  the  house.  *  *  * 
Those  who  are  condemned  by  Christ  (continues  St. 
Augustine)  for  their  evil  and  polluted  consciences, 
are  not  in  Christ's  body,  which  is  the  Church  ;  for 
Christ  hath  no  damned  members.' 

"  But  I  need  not  be  digging  the  cisterns  for  this 
truth — Christ  himself  hath  taught  it  very  plainly  : 
4  Ye  are  my  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command 
you,  not  upon  any  other  terms  ;  and  I  hope  none  but 
friends  are  members  of  Christ's  mystical  body, 
members  of  the  Church  whereof  he  is  head  *  *  to  be 
united  to  Christ,  and  to  be  members  of  his  body  ; 
these  are  the  portions  of  saints,  not  of  wicked  per- 
sons, whether  clergy  or  laity.  *  *  As  all  the  prin- 
ciples and  graces  of  the  gospel  are  the  property  of 
the  godly,  so  they  only  are  the  Church  of  God  of 
which  glorious  things  are  spoken,  and  it  will  be  vain 
to  talk  of  the  infallibility  of  God's  Church;  the 


APPENDIX.  101 

Roman  doctors  either  must  confess  it  subjected 
here,  that  is,  in  the  Church  in  this  sense,  or  they  can 
find  it  no  where.  In  short,  this  is  the  Church,  (in 
the  sense  now  explicited)  which  is  '  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth  ,•'  but  this  is  not  the  sense  of  the 
Church  of  Rome"  nor  (we  add)  of  those  who  are 
now  endeavouring  to  bring  us  so  near  to  Rome,  but 
on  the  contrary  is  the  sense  which  their  whole  sys- 
tem, as  much  as  that  of  Rome,  requires  them  to 
oppose.  Hence  the  necessity  of  keeping  it  distinct, 
and  holding  it  fast.  *  *  * 

"  The  word  '  church,'  I  grant,  may  be,  and  is 
given  to  them  by  way  of  supposition  and  legal  pre- 
sumption, as  a  jury  of  twelve  men  are  called  ' good 
men  and  true' — that  is,  they  are  not  known  to  be 
otherwise,  and  therefore  presumed  to  be  such  ;  and 
they  are  the  church  in  all  human  accounts — that  is, 
they  are  the  congregation  of  all  that  profess  the 
name  of  Christ,  *  *  *  in  which  are  the  wheat 
and  the  tares  ;  and  they  are  bound  up  in  common 
by  the  union  of  sacraments  and  external  rites,  name 
and  profession,  but  by  nothing  else.  This  doctrine 
is  well  explicited  by  St.  Austin.  lC  Not  only  in 
eternity,  but  even  now,  hypocrites  are  not  to  be  said 
to  be  with  Christ,  although  they  may  seem  to  be 
of  his  church.  jJut  the  Scripture  speaks  of  them 
and  these,  as  if  they  were  both  of  one  body,  propter 
temporalem  commixtionem  et  communionem  sacramen- 
torum.    They   are    only   combined  by  a  temporal 


9* 


102  APPENDIX. 

mixture,  and  united  by  the  common  use  of  sacra- 
ments. *  *  *  So  that  which  we  call  the  church, 
is  lpermixta  ecclesia^  and  for  this  mixture's  sake, 
under  the  cover  and  knot  of  external  communion, 
the  church — that  is,  all  that  company,  is  esteemed 
one  body  ;  and  the  appellations  are  made  in  com- 
mon, and  so  are  the  addresses  and  offices  and  min- 
istries. Therefore  it  is  no  wonder  that  we  call  this 
great,  mixture  by  the  name  of '  the  church  ;'  but  then 
since  the  church  hath  a  more  sacred  notion,  as  it  is 
the  spouse  of  Christ,  his  body,  his  temple,  &c.  *  * 
therefore,  although  when  we  speak  of  all  the  acts 
and  duties,  of  the  judgments  and  nomenclatures,  of 
outward  appearances  and  accounts  of  law,  we  call 
the  mixed  society  by  the  name  of  the  Church  ;  yet 
when  we  consider  it  in  the  true,  proper  and  primary 
meaning  *  *  all  the  promises  of  God,  the  Spirit  of 
God,  the  life  of  God,  and  all  the  good  things  of  God, 
are  peculiar  to  the  Church  of  God,  in  God's  sense, 
in  the  way  in  which  he  owns  it,  that  is,  as  it  is  holy, 
united  unto  Christ,  like  to  him,  and  partaker  of  the 
divine  nature.  The  other  are  but  a  heap  of  men 
keeping  good  company,  calling  themselves  by  a  good 
name,  managing  the  external  parts  of  union  and 
ministry ;  but  because  they  otherwise  belong  not  to 
God,  the  promises  no  otherwise  belong  to  them,  but 
as  they  may,  and  when  they  do,  return  to  God. 
Here  then  are  two  senses  of  the  word  '  Church  ;' 
God's  sense  and  man's  sense;  the  sense  of  religion, 


APFENDIX.  103 

and  the  sense  of  government;  common  rites,  and 
spiritual  union." 

Bp.  Taylor's  Dissuasive  from  Popery,  Part  II.  B.  I.  Sect. 
I.  §§  L  &  II. 

Having  laid  his  foundation  in  the  position  that 
none  but  the  true  servants  of  Christ  make  the  true 
Church  of  Christ,  and  have  title  to  the  promises; 
and  having  observed  that  the  Romish  church  relies 
upon  the  church  under  another  definition,  Bishop 
Taylor  proceeds : 

"  Of  the  church,  in  the  first  sense,  St.  Paul 
affirms,  it  is  "\he  pillar  and  ground  of  truth"  He 
spake  it  of  the  church  of  Ephesus,  or  the  holy 
catholic  church  over  the  world  ;  for  there  is  the 
same  reason  of  one  and  all ;  if  it  be,  as  St.  Paul 
calls  it,  "Ecclesia  Dei  vivi,"  if  it  be  united  to  the 
head,  Christ  Jesus,  every  church  is  as  much  the 
"  pillar  and  ground  of  truth"  as  all  the  church ; 
which,  that  we  may  understand  rightly,  we  are  to 
consider  that  what  is  commonly  called  the  "church," 
is  but  "  domus  ecclesiae  verae,"  as  the  "  ecclesia 
vera"  is  "  domus  Dei :"  it  is  the  school  of  piety, 
the  place  of  institution  and  discipline.  Good  and 
bad  dwell  here  ;  but  God  only,  and  his  Spirit,  dwell 
with  the  good.  They  are  all  taught  in  the  church; 
but  the  good  only  are  "  taught  by  God,"  by  an 
infallible  Spirit — that  is,  by  a  Spirit  which  neither 
can  deceive,  nor  be  deceived;  and  therefore  by 
him  the  good,  and  they  only,  are  led  into  all-saving 


104  APPENDIX. 

truth ;  and  these  are  the  men  that  preserve  the 
truth  in  holiness.  Without  this  society,  the  truth 
would  be  hidden,  and  held  in  unrighteousness,  so 
that  all  good  men,  all  particular  congregations  of 
good  men,  who,  upon  the  foundation,  Christ  Jesus, 
build  the  superstructure  of  a  holy  life,  are  "  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  truth ;"  that  is,  they  support 
and  defend  the  truth — they  follow  and  adorn  the 
truth,  which  truth  would  in  a  little  time  be  sup- 
pressed, or  obscured,  or  varied,  or  concealed,  and 
misinterpreted,  if  the  wicked  only  had  it  in  their 
conduct.  That  is,  amongst  good  men  we  are  most 
like  to  find  the  ways  of  peace  and  truth,  all-saving 
truth,  and  the  proper  spiritual  advantages  and  love- 
liness of  truth.  Now,  then,  this  does  no  more 
relate  to  all  churches,  than  to  every  church.  God 
will  no  more  leave  or  forsake  any  one  of  his  faith- 
ful servants,  than  he  will  forsake  all  the  world. 
And  therefore  here  the  notion  of  catholic  is  of  no 
use:  for  the  church  is  the  communion  of  saints, 
wherever  it  be  or  may  be;  and  that  this  church  is 
catholic,  it  does  not  mean  by  any  distinct  existence, 
but  by  comprehension  and  actual  and  potential  en- 
closure of  all  communions  of  holy  people  'in  the 
unity  of  the  spirit,  and  in  the  bond  of  peace' — 
that  is,  both  externally  and  internally :  '  exter- 
nally' means  the  common  use  of  the  symbols  and 
sacraments,  for  they  are  the  bond  of  peace  ;  but 
the  unily  of  the  Spirit  is  the  peculiar  of  the  saints, 
and  is  the  internal  confederation  and  conjunction  of 


APPENDIX.  105 

the  members  of  Christ's  body  in  themselves,  and 
to  their  head.  And  by  the  energy  of  this  state, 
wherever  it  happens  to  be,  all  the  blessings  of  the 
Spirit  are  entailed ;  every  man  hath  his  share  in  it ; 
he  shall  never  be  left  or  forsaken ;  and  the  spirit  of 
God  will  never  depart  from  him  as  long  as  he 
remains  in,  and  is  of,  the  communion  of  saints.' 
Dissuasive  from  Popery,  supra. 

Archbishop  Usher. 

"  What  is  meant  here  (in  the  Creed)  by  the  Cath- 
olic Church?" 

"  That  whole  universal  company  of  the  elect  that 
ever  were,  are,  or  shall  be  gathered  together  in  one 
body,  knit  together  in  one  faith,  under  one  head, 
Jesus  Christ.  For  God,  in  all  places,  and  of  all 
sorts  of  men,  had  from  the  beginning,  hath  now, 
and  ever  will  have,  an  holy  church,  which  is  there- 
fore called  the  catholic  church — that  is,  God's 
whole  or  universal  assembly,  because  it  compre- 
hendeth  the  multitude  of  all  those  that  have,  do,  or 
shall  believe  unto  the  world's  end.  Part  are  already 
in  heaven  triumphant,  part  as  yet  militant  here  upon 
earth. 

"  What  is  the  Church  militant  ?" 

"  It  is  the  society  of  those  that  being  scattered 
through  all  the  corners  of  the  world,  are,  by  one 
faith  in  Christ,  conjoined  to  him  and  fight  under 
his  banner  against  their  enemies,  the  world,  the 
flesh  and  the  devil ;  continuing  in  the  service  and 


106  APPENDIX. 

warfare  of  their  Lord,  and  expecting  in  due  time, 
also,  to  be  crowned  with  victory,  and  triumph  in 
glory  with  Him. 

"  Who  are  the  true  members  of  the  church  mili- 
tant on  earth]" 

"Those  alone  who,  as  living  members  of  the 
mystical  body,  Eph.  i.  22,  23  ;  Col.  i.  18,  are,  by 
the  Spirit  and  Faith,  secretly  and  inseparably  con- 
joined unto  Christ,  their  head — Col.  iii.  3  ;  Ps. 
lxxxiii.  3.  In  which  respect,  the  true  militant 
church  is  both  invincible — Mat.  xvi.  18 — and  invi- 
sible— Rom.  ii.  29  ;  1  Pet.  iii.  4. 

"Truly  and  properly  none  are  of  the  church  saving 
only  they  which  truly  believe  and  yield  obedience ; 
(1  John,  2,  19,)  all  which  are  also  saved.  How- 
beit,  God  useth  outward  means  with  the  inward  for 
the  gathering  of  his  saints  ;  and  calleth  them  as 
well  to  outward  profession  among  themselves,  as 
to  inward  fellowship  with  his  Son ;  (Acts  ii.  42 ; 
Cant.  i.  7,)  whereby  the  church  becometh  visible. 
Hence  it  cometh,  that  so  many  as  partaking  the 
outward  means,  do  join  with  these  in  league  of 
visible  profession;  (Acts  viii.  13,)  are  therefore  in 
human  judgment  accompted  members  of  the  true 
church  and  saints  by  calling;  (1  Cor.  i.  2,)  until 
the  Lord,  who  only  knoweth  who  are  his,  do  make 
known  the  contrary,  as  we  are  taught  in  the  para- 
ble of  the  tares,  the  draw  net,  &c ;  (Mat.  xiii.  24, 
47.)  Thus  many  live  in  the  church,  as  it  is  visible 
and  outward,  which  are  partakers  only  outwardly 


APPENDIX.  107 

of  grace ;  and  such  are  not  fully  of  the  church  that 
have  entered  in  but  one  step ;  (Cant.  iv.  7;  Eph.  v. 
27;  John  ii.  19.)  That  a  man  may  be  fully  of  the 
church,  it  is  not  sufficient  that  he  profess  Christ 
with  his  mouth,  but  it  is  further  required  that  he 
believe  in  him  in  heart. 

Usher's  Body  of  Divinity,  187,  189. 

"The  communion  of  saints  consists  in  the  union 
which  we  all  have  with  one  Head.  For  Christ, 
our  head,  is  the  main  foundation  of  this  heavenly 
union. 

Ushers  Sermon  before  the  House  of  Commons. 

Dr.  Jackson. 

"Of  all  terms  used  in  Scripture,  this  word  Church, 
as  was  observed  before,  hath  the  greatest  variety  of 
signification  or  importances.  And  by  consequence 
it  must  have  one,  the  principal  object,  of  which  all 
the  principal  attributes  or  titles  of  the  church  are 
punctually  and  actually  verified;  and  other  objects 
less  principal,  to  which  notwithstanding,  the  same 
name  or  titles  are  in  some  measure  often  commu- 
nicated— (Treatise  on  the  Church,  Goodes"*  Ed.,  Lond. 
p.  32.)  "  The  visible  church  is  a  transcendent,  and 
doth  neither  exclude  the  members  of  the  holy  church 
triumphant  or  militant,  nor  doth  it  consist  only  of 
them — but  of  them  and  of  others  called  only  by  a 
mere    external  vocation.     *     •*       *     The   church 


108  APPENDIX. 

militant  is  visible  to  God  and  to  the  several  mem- 
bers of  it;  but  what  members  of  this  visible  and 
militant  church  be  live  members  of  the  one  holy 
and  catholic  church,  is  known  only  to  God  or  to 
men's  private  consciences,  &c. — p.  48. 

"  All  God's  promises  to  the  church  belong  to  the 
principal  members  of  it,  who  are  distinctly  and 
individually  known  to  Himself  only — not  so  to  us, 
to  whom,  notwithstanding  their  persons  are  visible, 
their  profession  of  faith  is  also  visible.  The  sin- 
cerity of  their  hearts  or  faith,  is,  to  us,  invisible; 
and  therefore  invisible  it  is  to  us  whether  they  be 
live  members  of  the  holy  catholic  church  or  no. 
— p.  31. 

"  Though  the  church  be  sometimes,  by  good 
writers,  entitled  as  well  invisible  as  visible,  we  are 
not,  from  this  opposition  of  words  or  terms,  to  con- 
ceit an  opposition  or  distinction  of  churches,  as  if 
some  were  visible,  others  altogether  invisible.  Such 
as  most  use  these  terms,  mean  no  more  by  them 
than  we  have  said,  to  wit:  What  persons  of  the 
militant  and  visible  church  be  true  denizens  of  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  or  city  of  God,  is  to  us  invisible 
or  unknown.  I  cannot  say  whether  it  were  igno- 
rance or  malice  in  the  Romanists  to  construe  these 
terms  of  visible  and  invisible,  whilst  they  found  them 
in  some  of  our  writers,  as  if  they  had  constituted 
two  contra-distinct,  or  opposite  churches,  when  as 
it  is  plain  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  subordi- 
nate   and  co-incident.     Ordinarily,  the   live-mem- 


APPENDIX.  109 

bers  of  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  or  of  that  part 
of  it  which  is  to  us  invisible,  are  members  of  some 
visible  church — but  not  e  contra ;  for  neither  all, 
nor  most  part  of  any  visible  church,  in  latter  ages, 
are  true  and  live  members  of  the  holy  and  catholic 
church,  part  of  which  we  believe  to  be  here  on 
earth,  though  it  be  to  us  invisible.  *  *  *  Many 
there  be  which  are  no  members  of  the  visible 
church,  and  yet  better  members  of  the  true  church 
than  the  members  of  the  church-visible,  for  the  pre- 
sent, are. — pp.  48,  49. 

"  This  church,  (the  true,  holy  and  catholic 
church,)  is  a  true  and  real  body,  consisting  of  many 
parts,  all  really  (though  mystically  and  spiritually) 
united  unto  one  head ;  and  by  their  real  union  with 
one  head,  all  are  truly  and  really  united  among 
themselves.  Every  one  is  so  far  a  member  of 
Christ's  Church,  as  he  is  a  member  of  Christ's 
body.  He  that  is  a  true  live-member  of  the  one, 
is  a  true  live-member  of  the  other.  He  that  is  but 
an  equivocal,  analogical,  hypocritical  or  painted 
member  of  the  one,  is  but  an  equivocal,  hypocriti- 
cal, painted,  or  analogical  member  of  the  other. 
As  Christ  is  the  true  Temple,  because  the  Godhead 
dwelleth  in  him,  so  all. they,  and  only  they,  in  whom 
he  dwelleth  by  faith,  are  true  temples  of  God, 
and  live-members  of  the  Catholic  Church. — 
pp.  18,  19,  20. 

"  The  Catholic  Church,  in  the  prime  sense,  con- 
sists only  of  such  men  as  are  actual  and  indisso- 

10 


110  APPENDIX. 

luble  members  of  Christ's  mystical  body,  or  of 
such  as  have  the  Catholic  faith,  not  only  sown  in 
their  brains  or  understandings,  but  thoroughly 
rooted  in  their  hearts.  In  a  secondary,  analogical 
sense,  every  present,  visible  church,  which  holdeth 
the  holy  Catholic  faith,  without  which  no  man  can 
be  saved,  pure  and  undefiled  with  the  traditions 
and  inventions  of  man,  may  be  termed  a  holy  Cath- 
olic Church.  When  we  say  a  man  may  be  a  visible 
member  of  the  holy  Catholic  Church,  and  yet  no 
actual  member  of  any  present  visible  church,  we 
take  the  Catholic  church  in  the  latter  or  secondary 
sense.  Who  are  indissoluble  members  of  Christ's 
body,  is  only  visible  or  known  to  Him.  Many 
thousands  are,  and  have  been,  true  members  of  it, 
which  are,  and  have  been,  altogether  invisible  to 
us.  But  who  they  be  that  possess  the  unity  of  that 
faith  which  the  Apostles  taught,  and  without  which 
no  man  can  be  saved,  is  visible  and  known  to  all 
such  as  either  hear  them  profess  it  viva  voce,  or  can 
read  and  understand  their  profession  of  it  given  in 
writing. — p.  152. 

These  last  extracts  are  from  a  Treatise  on  the 
Church,  by  the  learned  Dr.  Jackson,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  those  divines  of  gigantic 
learning,  who  fought  the  fight  of  the  protestant 
faith  against  the  church  of  Rome,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  His  Treatise  on  the  Church  is 
part  of  a  great  work,  unfinished,  on  the  Apostles' 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

Creed.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Goode,  of  London,  has  re- 
vived attention  to  it,  because  of  its  decided  oppo- 
sition to  those  views  of  the  church  which  the 
Tractarian  writings  have  re-produced  out  of  what 
were  once  considered,  among  us,  the  worn-out 
errors  of  Romanism.  From  the  edition  by  Mr. 
Goode,  a  re-print  has  been  made  in  this  country  by 
Mr.  Hooker.  I  cannot  abstain  from  earnestly  recom- 
mending that  little  book  to  the  study  of  all  who 
wish  to  know  what  is  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
and  Communion  of  Saints,  in  which  they  profess  to 
believe. 

The  account  given  by  the  great  Dr.  Isaac  BarTow, 
of  the  Visible  and  Invisible  Church,  in  his  "  Dis- 
course on  the  Unity  of  the  Church,"  agrees  per- 
fectly with  the  above.  I  shall  quote  from  vol.  vi. 
of  the  Oxford  edition  of  his  works,  1818. 

He  defines  the  one  as  u  the  society  of  those  who 
profess  the  faith  and  gospel  of  Christ,  and  under- 
take the  evangelical  covenant  in  distinction  to  all 
other  religions." 

The  other  he  defines  as  "the  whole  body  of  God's 
people  that  is,  ever  hath  been,  or  ever  shall  be,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world,  to  the  consummation 
thereof,  who  having  (formally  or  virtually)  believed 
in  Christ,  and  sincerely  obeyed  God's  laws,  shall 
finally,  by  the  meritorious  performances  and  suffer- 
ings of  Christ,  be  saved." 

The  latter  he  calls  "  the  Catholic  society  of  true 


112  APPENDIX. 

believers  and  faithful  servants  of  Christ,"  the  "  true 
universal  church,  called  the  Church  mystical  and 
invisible." — pp.  497  and  500. 

To  this  invisible  church,  composed  only  of  such 
as  shall  finally  be  saved,  belong,  he  says,  "all  the 
glorious  titles  and  excellent  privileges  attributed  to 
the  church  in  holy  Scripture."  "  This  is  the  body 
of  Christ,"  "the  spouse  of  Christ,"  "the  house  of 
God  built  on  a  rock,  against  which  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail ',"  "  this  is  the  elect  generation,"  &c. 

"  To  this  church,  belongs  peculiarly  that  unity 
which  is  often  attributed  to  the  church." 

"  This  is  that  one  body  into  which  we  are  all  bap- 
tized by  one  Spirit;  the  members  whereof  do  hold  a 
mutual  sympathy  and  complacence;  which  is  joined 
to  one  head,  deriving  sense  and  motion  from  it ; 
which  is  enlivened  and  moved  by  one  Spirit." 

"This  is  the  society  of  those  for  whom  Christ 
did  pray  that  they  might  be  all  one" — pp.  497, 
498,  499. 

The  essential  unity  of  this  invisible,  catholic 
church,  to  which  only  belong  the  promises  of  God, 
according  to  the  above,  is  thus  described  : 

"  All  christians  are  united  by  spiritual  cognation 
and  alliance,  as  being  all  regenerated  by  the  same 
incorruptible  seed,  being  alike  born,  not  of  blood  nor 
of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of 
God,  whence,  as  the  sons  of  God,  and  brethren  of 
Christ,  they  become  brethren  one  to  another.     *    * 

"  The  whole  christian  church  is  one  by  its  in- 


APPENDIX.  113 

corporation  into  tho  mystical  body  of  Christ,  or  as 
fellow-subjects  of  that  spiritual,  heavenly  king- 
dom, whereof  Christ  is  the  sovereign  head  and 
governor,  whence  they  are  governed  by  the  same 
laws,  are  obliged  by  the  same  institutions  and  func- 
tions ;  they  partake  of  the  same  privileges,  and  are 
entitled  to  the  same  promises,  and  encouraged  by 
the  same  rewards.  So  they  make  one  spiritual 
corporation  or  republic,  whereof  Christ  is  the  sove- 
reign Lord." — p.  597. 

Then  in  what  sense  the  Visible  church,  the  mixed 
society,  may  be  considered  as  partaking  in  the 
titles,  privileges,  &c,  which  belong  of  right  to  the 
invisible  only,  Dr.  Barrow  thus  teaches : 

"  The  places  of  Scripture  which  do  represent  the 
church  one,  as  unquestionably  they  belong  (in  their 
principal  notion  and  intent)  to  the  true  Universal 
Church,  (called  the  church  mystical  and  invisible  ;) 
so  may  they  by  analogy  and  participation,  be  under- 
stood to  concern  the  visible  church-Catholic  here  on 
earth,  which  professeth  faith  in  Christ  and  obedi- 
ence to  his  laws." — p.  501.  For  because  the  visi- 
ble church  doth  enfold  the  other,  (as  one  mass  doth 
contain  the  good  ore  and  base  alloy,  as  one  floor 
the  corn  and  the  chaff,)  *  *  *  because,  pre- 
sumptively, every  member  of  this  (the  visible)  doth 
pass  for  a  member  of  the  other,  (the  invisible,)  the 
time  of  distinction  and  separation  being  not  yet 
come ;      *    *    *       therefore,  commonly  the  titles 


114  APPENDIX. 

and  attributes  of  the  one  are  imparted  to  the  other. 
All  (saith  St.  Paul,)  are  not  Israel  who  are  of  Israel, 
nor  is  he  a  Jew  that  is  one  outwardly  ,•  yet  in  regard 
to  the  conjunction  of  the  rest  with  the  faithful  Isra- 
elites, because  of  external  consent  in  the  same  pro- 
fession, and  conspiring  in  the  same  services,  all  the 
congregation  of  Israel  is  styled  a  holy  nation  and 
peculiar  people. 

"  So  likewise  do  the  Apostles  speak  to  all  mem- 
bers of  the  church  (visible)  as  to  elect  and  holy 
persons,  unto  whom  all  the  privileges  of  Christi- 
anity do  belong,  although  really  hypocrites  and  bad 
men  do  not  belong  to  the  church,  nor  are  concerned  in 
its  unity,  as  St.  Austin  doth  often  teach." — 
pp.  499,  500. 

The  places  of  St  Austin,  which  Barrow  cites 
and  makes  his  own,  are  such  as  these :  Non  ad 
earn  pertinent  avari,  raptores,  fxnatores.  Videntur 
esse  in  Ecclesia,  non  sunt.  Ecclesiam  veram  intelli- 
gere  non  andeo,  nisi  in  Sanctis  et  justis.  Multi  sunt  in 
sacramentorum  communione  cum  Ecclesia  et  tamen  jam 
non  sunt  in  Ecclesia.  "  The  covetous,  &c,  do  not 
belong  to  the  church.  They  seem  to  be  in  it,  but 
are  not.  I  dare  not  understand  the  true  church 
to  be  but  among  the  holy  and  righteous  men." — 
"  There  are  many  who  communicate  in  sacraments 
with  the  church,  and  yet  they  are  not  in  it." — 
p.  500. 


H.  HOOKER, 
ITiU  Publish  in  a  few  days,  tbe 

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